At a young age, I wanted to be many things. I had career dreams ranging from a professional soccer player to an ice-cream truck driver. As I’ve grown older, those ideas now are merely dreams. Although we may have had so many dreams in the past, we shouldn’t forget them, but rather work to fulfill those dreams, even if it seems impossible.

As high schoolers, those dreams we had are now forgotten or thought of only once in a while. For seniors especially, it’s the year when you guys choose your future and your career. Many of you seniors can confidently say that you’ve had a career in mind at a very young age and have continued with that goal.

But for others, it’s the complete opposite. Because society makes it seem that our dreams are simply “dreams”, you have chosen to take the career path that fits the requirements of reality, or having a job that is actually achievable.

A wise man by the name of Tupac once said, “Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.” We all live off of our dreams, and if we didn’t have dreams, we would be living for nothing. Live for dreams, not for others. 

Obviously, I can just ramble on and on about this idea, and you might not take anything away from this. To be honest, if I were to be reading this I would be thinking, “This Asian kid sounds like my mom.”

But the truth is, dreams are so important in life, and at times we forget how much they impact us. We think of dreams as simply “dreams”. When we think of dreams we don’t think of them with any value. When we make goals, many times we don’t succeed. We’ll try to succeed for a little bit, but sooner or later we think of it as impossible, and we settle for something easier.

Clearly, this is our problem. When we think of role models like Michael Jordan or Ellen Degeneres, we think to ourselves, “I wish I could be like them.” Then that’s that, and we continue on with our life. We think that they had a lucky break, and they were born with their talent.

However, they earned their position. They were just like us and had a dream at a young age. Then, unlike us, they worked to reach their dream, and through determination and confidence, they fulfilled it.

Sure, I’m just an average kid that likes his bread without the crust, so I might not have the credentials to tell you what to do. But as the infamous Shia LaBeouf once said, “DON’T LET YOUR DREAMS BE DREAMS…MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE. JUST DO IT!”

So, why are we not doing this? And who knows: maybe I’ll become a professional soccer player, and I can just become an ice cream truck driver on the weekends. Nothing is impossible.