Being A Dreamer In The ‘Real World’
Recently, I decided to make my writing a big deal to myself. Starting my own Instagram page and also changing my degree major from Early Childhood Education to English with Creative Writing.
I turned to my family members for advice about the change but everyone said the same thing:
“Just stick to what you know. Your writing can wait,”
“you won’t get anywhere with writing eventually you’ll just end up teaching”
“you’ll just end up regretting it, don’t waste your time” and
“don’t bother with that, you’ll make a mistake, just love the life you have.”
But all these comments just fueled me to work harder towards my writing dream. It is a dream and it is a dream I want to make very real. But it has also highlighted an issue to me- the stigma dreamers face in the real world because really, what is real and what is a dream?
Dreaming of being a Lawyer is real but dreaming of being a Writer… is a dream? Yes we need lawyers but why don’t we need art, writers, artists, musicians?
Dreaming of being a writer, an artist or anything along the creative field is pure suicide because it is hard, harder than most fields to survive, to get a job which is true but maybe it is hard for a reason because it pushes you to explore the unknown, in this world and in yourself and there of course, has to be a standard to your work that you have created.
But, that feeling of creating something that people read, see or hear and it makes others feel or brings out the raw emotion lying within, that, that makes it all worthwhile but… apparently it is not enough.
To most people around me, I am being too crazy, too impulsive about what I want to do because I have to be satisfied with what I have right now which is teaching and childcare but I am not. I am not satisfied and I want to dream, dream and dream till my dreams become my reality. My reality to write. From a young age, you’re told to dream- “what do you dream of being when you grow up? or “dream about when you become ….” but as we get older, we lose those dreams.
We are then made to believe that dreams are out of our reach for all sorts of reasons and limitations. From skin colour, race, religion to just the fact that oh don’t bother it’s too hard. We are made to feel like our dreams were just child’s play and now it’s time to face the Real World. But why can’t we dream in the Real World too? What is so bad about dreaming and chasing that dream? The failure, the disappointment? I say that the failure and disappointment lies in not dreaming at all.
If you try and you fail, that is okay because you can always try again or find a different path if it’s just too much already but if you don’t even try and you sit there, living life feeling dissatisfied with every job you go through, wishing you had done something else then that is such a disappointment. It’s not easy but nothing worth having comes easy. You’ve got to go through ups and downs, rejections, criticisms, heartache because that is just how you learn.
To all my dreams out there.. no matter where you are, who you are, keep dreaming. Keep dreaming in this Real World because it is what gives us hope, it is what feeds our souls and keeps us going.
The dream of making it, of making our dreams our reality. And you do not have to just settle for this life you have, you CAN go out and make it the life you truly truly love. Bask in that fact because nowadays it’s so hard for most to love the life they are living because there is always some dream that is missing. So keep dreaming.
To all my writers who have been put down, criticized or feel like whatever they create is never enough.. believe that it is. It is enough because you are enough. Your words are your creation, a unique masterpiece, remember that and never ever stop writing. For anything, anyone.
And to everyone who thinks dreaming is for fools, who have stopped dreaming, who feel as though life has only one path, I say to you that you are wrong. And I feel sorry for you. That you will live your life void of magic, of that fire within.
I end this with my favorite quote from movie, ‘Dead Poets Society’
“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”