“Was
it a dream?” I ask myself this question every morning when I wake up. I would
have just woken up from a wonderful dream. But, when my father comes and turns
on the lights and sprinkles some water on me, I wake up with a start, and am
filled with disgust, with a realization that all that happened was just a
dream. Oh, how I dread it when I have to wake up!
This
is a routine. It happens each day. I would say that it has been happening every
single day since the day that I first decided what I wanted to study in the future.
From that day I have been seriously thinking how it is possible for just a
decision or a passing thought to actually turn into a colorful dream and
trouble you every day and night with its beautiful wings.
I
am someone who never gives a thought about the future, leave alone the far away
future, I don’t even think of the near future. And when there was pressure from
the family front, I had to give it a serious thought. And that is when a fancy
idea passed my head and when I thought it out aloud, people at home said,
“Yeah, not bad, try it. For all you know it may be good for you.” And then it
all began!
One
simple thought transformed into some serious searching and hunting and I landed
up with the perfect college, but it was far off. And my family was perfectly
fine with the idea of studying something good and worth the pay, even if the college
was far-off from home.
Thus
began my dream- my dream of becoming a student of a top college, staying in a
hostel, having fun with roommates, mess food, and much more.
~~~~
Life is filled up with such dreams. Be it tiny or a
large one, dreams do make you lose your sleep. It is amazing how everything in
life is connected to dreams, and every dream is connected to some goal and
goals are the essential part of living. Without goals there would be no meaning
to life. So the whole chain of dreams, goals and life goes about in a circle.
It is also important to understand as to how these
dreams get formed. They don’t just randomly crop up in your head in the night
during sleep; they do have their own sources, just like how my dream began with
the talk of higher studies. Dreams can originate from various things, right
from a minute activity that takes place in front of you, to an inspirational
speech, to which one pays attention even for fifteen minutes!
Just a comment passed, a thought that shows itself
up to you for a fraction of second, a motivational statement said in class by a
teacher, a random sentence written in a book that you just flip through, an
advertisement that’s got a catchy tag-line; and the list can go on as to what
can feature in the list of the ways in which a dream is formed. Why go to that
extent? A simple comparison done between you and a person of the same age
group, who is doing something that is applauded, will stir feelings into one
and then it can all start- dreaming of yourself in that position, getting
praised for it, proudly spoken of to others, and it goes on and on and on.
But wait! How many of these dreams are worth the
time you spend on dreaming? Not all of them are ones that are goal-oriented! We
do dream of things that are completely useless. But, that’s for the person
dreaming to decide. To decide what they dream of is useful or not, is their
choice. What they think of as useful may be utter nonsense to others, but it is
you who is the owner of your dream, so only you have the right to classify it.
If your dream is one that has some worth, and not
just one that played a smile on your face when you woke up in the morning, then
what is the purpose of that dream? How can one turn that dream into reality?
Simple, make it a goal! A goal is after all a dream that is taken more
seriously and is set by some boundaries. But, how is a goal achieved? Oh, that
involves a lot of work! Once you set goals be sure that you need to sweat it
out to achieve it. You need to set rules, plan procedures, include ideas,
manage time, and the hard part is yet to come- you need to follow all the
mentioned activities sincerely.
Oh, and that sure does need a lot of hard work!
Because it is only when you try being serious about something the whole world
comes up in unison to push you off it. Not that many stand by and discourage
you but they sure do play spoil sport! Just when you have got the right mindset
and going to sit for your first step towards your goal, your friend calls for a
movie that is on the hit-list and has been your must-watch list, and hello the
ticket is available! And that’s how the struggle to achieve it becomes even
more difficult. Because once you stray off the path, to come back to it is
tough and one thing that is most important for you to come back is “will
power”. Not just will power, you need a ‘strong’ will power so that you don’t
stray back or go aloof. For one to actually achieve a goal or at least cross
the initial few steps, one needs to think of oneself as a horse let to graze
with blinders on. But that doesn’t mean you have to completely blind yourself
from the outside world, the fun and frolic that’s happening around you, but all
you need to do is set priorities. If there’s all work and no play, it’s just a
waste of your day. And more than the serious part or theoretical part, the
practical part makes a person stronger, sharper, and brighter. You learn more
in the outside than in the inside. And that’s when you learn from your own
mistake or from someone else’s mistake and all these play a very important role
in you achieving your goal.
And
finally, life! These dreams that are transformed into goals are the ones that
keep life going! Small or large, dreams are the pedals for goals and in turn
goals are the wheels of life! So in short life is IMPOSSIBLE without dreams-
just like how I dreamt of becoming a writer for a newspaper when I was young
and now that has turned into a goal and this is a part of my hard work to
achieve my goal. Not just hard work, its HARD WORK!
SUBMITTED
BY: Varsha
Varadharajan
5TH
SEMESTER, B.A.
