"I've come back for you, to remind you of something. Something you once knew.."
When we were young and still in the little cocoon that we (and perhaps others) have created for ourselves, limitations, at least from what my memories have recorded, are few are far between. Limitations not in terms of physical or geographical terms, and not even in societal and cultural norms, but in the mind and the heart. When we were young, we not only had the ability to dream, but also the courage to believe that dreams can, will and do come true. In the narrative of discovering who we are and what we're capable of, we also dream of who we can be and what we can achieve.
And then we grew up, and the world gave us all rude and shock awakenings. Then dreams that we had when we were young slowly died, slowly discarded as fanciful wishings and useless ambitions. Young dreams were replaced by the desire for money, ambition and lifestyles that have been agreed upon as good and great. Now if these things were actually what one has dreamt of since young, then perhaps the conversation then ends here. Congratulations. You've fulfilled the purposes of your life. While the world has set a certain pattern of what should be considered "the good life" - properties, money, careers etc - for many others these were not the dreams of their once-young hearts. Some perhaps have dreamt of helping others in need - peacecorps, social workers, teachers for disabled children, health care workers for the elderly etc - but discarded them (or were told to do so) because these ambitions did not fulfill the world's picture of "the good life". Some perhaps have always dreamt of travel, experiencing cultures and languages and expanding their views of the world, but found themselves having to delay, and in the end destroy their dreams because of the lack of money, the need to hold down an under-paid, overtime, stressful career, just so that the bills can be paid. Whatever that other life or other path could have been (or rather should have been?) was thrown out because the world tells us - "that is not what you should be doing".
And slowly we forget who we really are, and bit by bit, be replaced by someone who for all intents and purpose may be us - he/she look, talk, act, smile, laugh, love, cry etc the way we do - but that is not us; at least, not the persons who we wanted to be in the first place.
The challenge is to never forget the dreams of when we were young; to remind ourselves how we once were, and to remember, in the words of Walt Disney, "If you can dream it, you can do it."
I used to believe that I can do anything that I wanted to, as long as I try my best and put my mind into it. I used to know what I want to do with my life; I still do. It's not this. I'm not sure whether I believe what I used to believe anymore.
We were meant to live for so much more. Have we lost ourselves?
