03 August 2021
Perum Trias, Cibitung
Evening, 20:42
Critics to popular sayings about dreams.
People have been saying to not dare to dream because it is free. Let us assess this phrase first. People have visions of their ideal life, let it be in terms of career, family, financial level, personality, physical look, so forth, and so on. Those visions become our dream that we linger on. Up to this point, the statement mentioned at the beginning holds true. You can compile so many dreams at a time, however wild and improbable. Dreaming does not charge you anything, yet.
Sometimes, dreams get so intriguing and inviting, that we just cannot let them settle quietly inside our minds. Hence, that is the point where we desire that dream to come to reality. We crave for that dream to be visible with our very eyes, not merely with mental vision. That is also the moment, where our dreams will start presenting bills. A common example could be the case of dreaming to get a scholarship for a graduate study abroad. Cost starts to appear as we plan to prepare all of the requirements: pay for standardized tests (e.g GRE, IELTS, TOEFL) and the preparation class that might follow, pay for courses to add to your qualifications and pay for the application fee to the campus. I have not mentioned the cost in the form of time and energy. We have to devote a great amount of time and dedication to study for the tests mentioned before. We have to pour serious attention to obtain recommendation letters from our past professors, or current employers or communities. This one becomes a very sensitive task since we are taking into account our personal relationship with the referees as we try to avoid any impressions that this correspondence is only transactional. Also, it will surely keep you awake until later than usual as you read for papers that support your research proposals.
Even if we made it to secure the financial aid, you must prepare a large amount of money to get the visa ready. We must be able to present a certain amount of money in our bank account to ensure the visa granter that we could support our living expenses in their soil for several months, regardless of your status as s scholarship awardee. The expense allocation lists will go on and go on as you shape the dream of ours come into truth.
We could now be clear that dreaming is in fact free. Nevertheless, making dreams come true is definitely not.
People also have been saying to shoot for dreams as high as the sky, because even if you fail, you will land among the stars. I believe that this statement is based on the perception that if we aim high and try harder than the rest, even if we do not make it, we will still be better than the rest who do not ever try. This is right-minded logic. However, it is not always the case.
In the worse case, failure in chasing dreams will cost us our self-esteem, especially when attaining your ambition is associated with our self-worth. Failing the dream means failing ourselves as a person. That is a large burden for anyone to handle, which often leads to depression whether it is mild or heavy. We know that we know someone who suffers this, or maybe we have experienced it first hand.
Therefore, I believe that both motivational sentences are incomplete, if not necessary. We could shift over to other expressions that emphasize the necessity of hard work and facing the challenges such as, “The first step to achieving your dream is to wake up.” I think this is better than the first saying. We are aware that we are talking about our life goal, not a dream as in brain activity while we sleep. The latter is definitely free. What is the benefit of dreaming if we are not willing to make it come true?
The second saying is heavier since we talk about the adverse effect of dreaming on people who have built a solid image of their success in their minds only to be shattered. We could rephrase it by saying, “Aim your dreams high, work hard but do not forget to lay the result to your God, as he is our Protector.” This phrase contains the following prominent aspects, whereas 1) The importance of liberating ourselves to dream high, 2) Setting our mind and body to exert efforts as exhaustive as possible to achieve those goals, 3) After committing the previous two tasks, leave to end result to God and 4) Believe that God will always protect us.
Thus, we might fail our scholarship, campus admission, and job applications despite all of our best endeavors without feeling demoralized, because we have physically done everything that could - consequently, there is no regret - and we firmly believed that this is God’s way of protecting us instead of hating us. This is a crucial psychological point of view to maintain stable mental health.
To conclude, I would like to remind us that chasing dreams is costly, and it is fine to fail your dream. It is not because you will land among the stars, but because you will find another sky to shoot for. It is the sky that God has written for you. So keep striving and do not give up!
