Today I’ll be asking some harsh yet basic questions, so please bear with me. Think for a second, if you will, about all the hopes and dreams you’d leave behind if you were to die today.
I don’t think it’s crazy to believe that if given the chance to live your life, most of you would do things differently; you’d achieve more and use your time more wisely.
How many of us will stress over the wrong people and things that have no real bearing on our reality, and in doing so, live an unlived life? I refuse to live an unlived life.
A smarter man than me once said that the richest place in the world is the graveyard; it’s filled with inventions that never saw the light of day, ideas that never came to fruition and dreams that were never fully realized.
What I want you to do, and I want you to do it right now, is sit down, and with pen in hand, write down five things you’d like to accomplish in your lifetime – five things you really, honestly want, but believe are the reach of your capability. Any of the things you write down are possible; achieving is necessary. committing spiritual and metaphysical suicide.
I find myself, after looking at this concept for far too many nights, wondering, “why”? Why do people allow their dreams to die; how can they allow that to happen to themselves? I’ve often spoken about the power of the word “why” and if the power of that word is enough to carry a warrior through trials, tribulations and defeat, it certainly has the power to lay you low and lead your life to ruin if you let it.
There are so many wrong “why’s” in this world, and people, more often than not, are happy to stop short of their dreams for any number of those “why’s.” The most prevalent of these reasons is a fear of failure. Nobody wants to experience failure – it’s embarrassing and it hurts. It’ll make you uncomfortable and fill your soul with unimaginable anguish and pain.
Here’s the thing about pain, and if you only take one thing from this essay, it ought to be this: pain, like dreams, is necessary in life, because once that pain subsides, and your past failures fade, they’ll be replaced with a resounding sense of pride and you’ll be one step closer to success and achieving your dream, even if it’s only an incremental increase. Pain, folks – pain is where the growth happens.
So what this all boils down to is a set of postulate questions, and core concepts: Are you willing to forfeit your dreams, to live an unlived life in the pursuit of an existence without pain and hardships?
If your answer was yes, you then have to ask yourself the next question. If you were to die today, what talents, ideas, and dreams would die with you?
Ryan Wasser is a fifth-year student majoring in English. He can be reached at RW851045@wcupa.edu.