Day 5: My Dreams

Dear dreams,
I don't know what you mean by dreams. My sleeping dreams or my future dreams? I'll write to both. Dear sleeping dreams. I don't usually remember you guys. Sorry. It's not that you're not important to me, it's just that I don't figgin remember you guys for some odd reason. sorry. The last dream I remember, I got killed by an atomic bomb. So maybe it's for the better that I don't remember you guys.


Dear future dreams. You're kind of unclear right now. Lemme just throw out some of you. In the future I don't want to be the kind of guy who works and works and works all through school and finally gets a good job and is successful all so that he he can make alot of money for himself to have the financial security for himself and his family. Don't get me wrong. I definitely want to be able to make money so that me and my family will never have to worry about having enough money.


But at the same time I don't want to have a life soley centered around money making. Money isn't everything. Backtrack a little. From the start our parents have pushed us into working hard in school. Work hard in school they say. Get a good education. Go to a good college. Use all of that to get a good job. Be succesful and make alot of money. Ultimately what do they want for us?


Ultimately they want us to, with this financial security and wealth, to be able to pursue our interests and lead happy lives. But suppose we don't spend all that time spending every possible minute hitting the books hard. Suppose we take the time in our lives to leave it all behind and just spend time having fun.. to be happy. Sounds weird huh. But if you think about it, all our parents want for us in the end is to be happy. But if we spend the time we could be using to study instead to take the time to enjoy life and be happy, aren't we achieiving the same end? Just through different means.


Ok I got really sidetracked. I digress. What I was trying to say is, to spend all that time in school only to grow up with the single purpose of making money for myself seems to me like a very selfish lifestyle. I recognize that it's the accepted view for most everybody out there and that it's basically the norm, but I honestly think it's at least a little bit selfish. I mean we work all those years to go to work for ourselves and our dearly beloved. Only those who are really succesful ever help out anyone else. And so my dream for the future is not to have a job where I make loads and loads of money. My dream for the future is to do something where every day of my life I have an opportunity to change someone else's life for the better. That's my idea of a productive life. I mean money will never ever buy you happiness. But by giving someone else happiness, they give some of it back to you. And that's the most priceless thing ever.


I guess that sounds kinda corny. Whatever I'll admit it, I'm a corny guy. Deal with it. What inspires me the most about leading a life to help others is that anyone can do it. It doesn't take brains. It doesn't matter if you scored a 2400 on your SAT or if you had a 5.0 GPA and was valedictorian of the world. It doesn't take any talent, skill, or brains to show compassion to another human being, to be willing to work hard for someone else's sake. All it takes is open ears and a willing heart. That is a big part of my dream.


I would also like to be someday happily married. And I would die after my wife, or at the same time, because I would promise never to leave her and I would never break that promise. I would want us to always be happy and to raise our kids well and teach them right about what's actually important in life. I want to someday be old and look back on my life and be completely absolutely content with it. I feel like that feeling of absolute acceptance and content would be the most amazing in the world. That would be true happiness. That would be my dream.