Following my dreams

Following my dreams
By Trevor Gustafson

Dreams. Aspirations. Longings. We all have them. While others might argue other wise I would say that even a nun locked away in a convent in Siberia has longings and desires. However we don’t always allow ourselves to follow our desires. At first it may sound ridiculous not to follow our dreams, but as we shall see, there are reasons that people don’t pursue their aspirations. Do we decide to be a programmer even though our parents want us to get a “respectable” job such as being a doctor? In my case, do I want to pursue a career in architecture even though it will mean seven and a half years of school and when I’m finished with that, relatively low pay? I think I do. Are our desires worth the hardship of abstaining them.

Who wouldn’t want to follow there dreams. Dreams are bubbling inside of us. They make us want to excel at what we love. They are the forth that drives us. If we don’t wish to do something we do it half heartedly. If we dislike a school assignment, we will not put much effort. Actually, if we don’t have a desire to do something we won’t do it at all. Even with the example of not doing a school assignment well, we still do the assignment. Why? Because We are realize that we want to succeed at school, and not flunk out of a class. Sometimes a desire can be as basic as wanting to avoid the wrath of our parents. A toddler may not realize this desire and thus disobey his authorities. You see, desires are what drive our every actions. The desire could be as basic as not wanting to fail a class. Or as complex as wanting to find a cure for cancer.

Unfortunately desires are not always easy to follow. Sometimes we might be afraid. What if my desire leads me down the wrong path? What if I can’t support myself with the career I choose? While you probably will want to choose something that will put be able to put the food on the table, don’t look down on having a simple life style. Just getting by. Unless your primary desire is to become the worlds first trillionare, happiness does not come from the size of the paycheck, but rather from your ability to be content with the work you are doing every day.

On maybe a more day to day level, are we afraid to follow a passion we have? What about in school. Are we willing to write a essay on a subject that we are passionate about even though we are afraid that the teacher might disagree with us and might even mark down our grade because of that? Do we let fear get in the way of our passions?

How about myself and facing the fear of becoming an architect. While my parents have made it clear that they will support whatever career endeavor I partake in, I still have many fears as to my future occupation. Will it pay enough to support a family? Will I be good at it. Will someone hire me? Will I do well in architecture school? Can I afford that much college? All of these are fears that are on my mind when I contemplate career. But every time I start to fear I say to myself, “so self, what else could I do as an occupation besides architecture.” And every single answer that self has given me, I have rejected. I consider doing that job day after day after day and I think I would realize that I would never be fully satisfied where I was unless I was doing architecture. I would always wonder what if? What if I had overcome my fears? What if I had gone to school and gotten my degree? What if someone had hired me and I could have been designing buildings right now? What if? Once I have this conversation with myself, and believe me I have this conversation a lot, practically everyday, I realize that no matter what obstacles I have to jump, I’ll jump them. No matter what hoops I have to go through, I go through then. No matter what length of endurance is needed I’ll find it. Just so I can follow my dream, and become and architect.

When faced with fears, I suggest doing what I do on a regular basis. Ask yourself, “what will happen if I don’t do this.” Will I always look back, wondering what would have happened if I had of done this. I think by the answer to that question you will know what to do.

There is another type of fear. One so big that it deserves it’s own paragraph [maybe even two or three] that is the fear of difficulty. What must I do to obtain this desire? When I look at becoming an architect, I see a very difficult road ahead of me. I must attend seven and a half years of college. Having been home schooled all my life this seams like a terribly daunting feet to accomplish. Once I transfer to a four year college, I will not know until my second year there whether or not I am going to be accepted into the program so I that I can continue at the school of architecture. Then, once I have completed my [seemingly endless] years at college, I must find a place to apprentiship at. After I have served a minimum of two years there, I must study for, then take a gruelingly long test to become a licensed architect. But it’s not just one test for the entire nation. No, I must take a different test for every state that I wish to be licensed in. Once I have jumped through all these hurdles, I must be content with a salary that will probably not allow for a large home, a nice car, and a vacation every summer to Hawaii. Am I willing to overcome all of this? Yes. I can simply not see myself being happy anywhere else.
Now, being a conservative, evangelical Christian, I desire to do God’s will in decisions in careers. Now I realize that this may not be relevant to many reading this, but since my faith is such a gigantic part of my life, and since wanting to do God’s will is the biggest deciding factor in my decision making in career fields, I decided that I probably should tackle this subject. I hope not to sound preachy, but simply to convey how much my religion and my God, Lord and Savior mean to me.

I personally believe that our desires are placed there by God. As a Christian, I so often think of desires as being worldly and evil, but sometimes we must sift through our desires, see which one are wrong for us, and see which ones God has placed there to give us guidance as to his will. To say that we think we should go into the ministry because we want to serve God is wrong thinking. God can use us in whatever occupation we are in.

Sometimes it is important to ask other’s advice about following your desires. For example, I asked an architect about what all was evolved in becoming an architect. Now maybe I might have discovered that there was some major part of being an architect that I would dislike, or downright despise. The architect may have been able to tell me some other similar occupation, that would not entail this despised task. You see, sometimes, our desires are built on false information. Sometiems it’s good to check with parent’s, teachers, and/or friends before you embark on the journey to pursue a major desire. I have some photography and it always amazes me how you can see a beautiful sceen and think that it would be just “picture Perfect” so you pull out the camera and snap away. Well you get home, develop the picture and find out that there was a tree right in the middle of the photograph. Had it not been there when you took the photo? Yes it most certainly had, but you hadn’t noticed it. Our friends, family and other influences are like the photo developing process. They can quit often, but not always, show us what is really there. [ask advice]
Following wrong desires. I shall call these desires wayward emotions. Is your desire really to stay out past your curfew on a school night, or is it to disobey your parents? Do you really want to Merry that person, or are you just angry that all your friends say the marriage will never work? Desires like this will pretty much always lead only to trouble.


Why does the subject of following my dreams interest me? It interests me because this is something extremely relevant to me. I feel think that people should take risks and dare to follow their dreams. I think they should be careful to discern a true dream and an emotional passion, but we should not be afraid to follow a dream.