Living the dream

Are we actually living our dreams? As a toddler, I use to say I'd want to be a doctor when I grow up, treating people and providing cure for some ailments. Same with my peers, while we all chose the lucrative white collar jobs, we wished and worked towards them. Some want to be doctors just like myself, others engineers, pilots architects, lawyers and a lot more. No one dared want to be a policeman because they were hated in the society and no one can afford their parents hearing them aspiring to be a police officer.

We all grew up still having those dreams, I'm not so sure of working towards them but along the line we all started on different paths. While I went to read mathematics in school, others read various courses and not actually what we wanted as kids.

Back to living the dream, I will not entirely rule out living the childhood dreams but I think the best dream to live is the ones you have as an adult. Be that person you always wanted to be, do that thing you want to do, go for that job that makes you happy and be creative.

As I write, one of my childhood friend who always wanted to be an engineer ended up studying physics and is now a policeman, another who wanted to be a doctor, ended up studying engineering and is now working in a bank.

We all have different things we want to be but due to fear and pressure from family, friends and society, we end up taking a path we never want and end up living our lives just for the cash but not for what we truly want.

A dying old man said what he regretted is not living his dreams. He said he always wanted to play the violin but couldn't learn because people expected much from him, he was forced to be an architect instead. He could not also marry the woman he loved because family and society said she was low class. Imagine living with someone you do not love for the rest of your life.

Our parents, relatives, friends and even society most times pressure is in to becoming someone else. We tend to obey and follow but deep down we are not really happy. Oftentimes we wish we were someone else, doing things differently but we feel it's too late to go back to that which we want.

Live freely, it's not too late to acquire that degree, learn that skill, join that band, go on that journey, visit those places, learn that instrument. Life won't present a second chance, so try and live the life now, live the dream, be who you want to be and spend time with those you want to, so that on your dying bed, you won't be filled with regrets.

Go out there and live the dream, it's never too late.