Think back to when you were 9 or 10.
What did you want to be when you grew up? What was that elusive career you were going to have? What were your dreams?
I know mine. First I was going to be a singer. Then a doctor. Then a journalist. I loved to sing, write, and help people-why not do it all? But I was 10. Reality had yet to sink its teeth into my ever-impressionable mind.
You probably had dreams too. Its a child-like quality. Even last week, I had my junior high students create presentations based around their dream jobs. I got answers like Nascar racer, PGA golfer, author, doctor, and musician. All from kids who live on an island no one has heard of. They have dreams. I had dreams. You had dreams.
Enter what I have dubbed the box. The box is a form of reality, but the ugliest form. It is the reality that sweeps in to make you aware that you are tone deaf, not smart enough for Organic Chemistry, and not pretty enough to be on TV. It consists of four walls that shut out our childhood dreams. This reality traps us in a box only able to wistfully look back on years where the sky truly was the limit. But we settle in. We start to hang pictures on the walls of our boxes and make them look nicer and after awhile decide that the box is maybe alright. That we have matured and are now thinking more logically then we did as 9 and 10 year olds. Given even more time, we may even forget the box is there.
Then-BOOM! One day you wake up and hit your head on the box, knock a picture off the wall, and see the ugly inside staring back at you (check out Tessa Zeng). But how do we get there? How do we go from children who believe they can be whatever they want to adults who feel they are consigned to whatever box reality has stuck them in?
First, we stop dreaming and start listening to dream-crushers. We ignore the inner self and start to listen to the voices of the world that spew rejection and mediocrity
Second, we stop pursuing our dreams and begin to cope with reality. We live day-to-day and stay within a neat little boundary line created by someone else.
Lastly, we stop asking why. Have you ever noticed how much little kids ask why? My elementary students are constantly asking why. Why are the books there? Why is the desk that color? Why is your room so neat? Why do I need to learn this? They ask why. Then all of a sudden, we stop asking why. We stop questioning why we are doing what we are doing or why it is the way it is. We just do it.
I gave up on my childhood dreams-partly because I really can’t sing(and much to the appreciation of everyone’s ears) and I decided I really don’t want to be a doctor. But instead of replacing them with bigger dreams, I settled into a box of mediocrity. I graduated college with high marks, have a good amount of experience under my belt, and have traveled some in the last few years. But what did I do with all of that; I shoved it in a corner and settled for a box that was labeled “Average.”
But I am not average. Just like you aren’t. I am passionate about changing the world and I can assure you that isn’t going to happen while I am stuck inside a box I have constructed. And you -well, the world needs you! Because the road less traveled includes ideas, thoughts, and passions that I believe will truly change the world. The creative, the passionate, the free-thinkers, the lovers of humanity, the haters of the status-quo; these are the people that will be daring enough to throw caution to the wind and pursue a path that dreams bigger and accomplishes more then anyone saw coming.
So get out of whatever box is keeping you from following the dreams you had as a kid or the dreams you have now. Take a risk, jump ship, and go for it-it may be the best decision you ever make! (and now I am going to listen to my own advice!)
