Echoes

When I was a little boy, I had so many dreams in my head. I want to be a racer, a milkman, a preacher, an actor, a scholar, and a chef. In other words; I want to rule the universe! I want to be a well-known person. I want everyone’s attention. What an optimistic dream, I thought.

In my teenage days, my dreams were shifted. I want to make a song everyone would listen to! I want to be the greatest musician ever lived. I want to spend the rest of my days just writing songs and performing them on stage. I want to conquer everyone’s music taste and create my musical market. People need to hear my songs and get touched by them. At least that’s what I thought.

As I grow up, I realized the only dream that matters is to stay alive and well, without any back pains or stressful days. Live happily just by listening to classical music while working on office sheets. To be the best, to pay for my expenses. At this point, all those dreams from my younger days have vanished. Even I don’t consider them as a hobby anymore. All I want is to work even harder and find other work opportunities. Dreams won’t feed you, dreams won’t pay your bills. Real work did. Wake up in the morning, working 9 to 5, going back home with tired eyes, that’s what will feed you and pay your bills.

At first, it was hard for me to let go of my dreams. I still want to mess around, I still want to have some fun. But as time goes by, it’s just impossible. I don’t have all the resources I need to achieve my dreams. Reality hits me hard like a freight train. It took me years to finally let them go. Dreams aren’t made for everyone. Sometimes, you need to just let them go away. But you got to keep living, at least for today.

Even though you’ve already given up on your dreams, you can still survive as yourself. Taking part in another field that wasn’t supposed to be your dream. You can still contribute to making the world a better place, taking part to change the world, and be a better person even without those dreams. You see, not everyone has superpowers, but everyone can be a hero. You can’t shoot lasers from your eyeballs, but you can save a kitten that is stuck on a tree. Everyone will get their part. And you will be a great person worth remembering, without having to achieve your past dreams.