Whether you realize it or not, every single one of us has a dream. Whether you spend your day too busy to think or just chilling with some video games, all of us have dreams. When we think of dreams we tend to think of the grandest of achievements in human history. Learning to fly, going to the moon, diving to the bottom of the sea. We tend to think of dreams as these giant, grand things but they don’t have to be. Each of those feats was once just a small idea, someone’s passion. Your dream, my dream, their worth is not measured in dollars, we do not need to inspire generations to have a dream. We have dreams because they are part of who we are. To dream is to be human.
Let’s put everything from the past few weeks together. Dreams are born from the things we are passionate about. I once dreamed of becoming a comic book artist, as my passion faded so to did that dream. Maybe you are passionate about ending the homeless crisis in America, or feeding your community, or taking care of your trans siblings? All of these can birth a new dream, a new course for you to follow. My dream to publish my book has just as much worth as another’s dream to travel the world. Why? Because these things are not weighed by how much they cost, they are weighed by our desire to see them through.
To bring our dreams into this world is a labor of love. It can take a lot of work, a lot of time, and a lot of energy to bring something intangible into our world. Our dreams will not come to be by speaking them into the universe or wishing upon a star, we have to put in the effort to make it happen. We have to want to make this work and be willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen. This is why I chose the language around desire to describe this. It is our desire to make our dreams real that gets us off our feet. It forces us to take action and attempt to make our dreams real.
Reality can be a harsh mistress because running in tandem with our desire is our skill. Just because we have the will does not always mean that we will have the skill to recreate your dream, your vision, perfectly. We are constrained by the limits of this world and by our own abilities. I could never draw exactly what I imagined in my head when I was in high school. Yet each new drawing brought me closer and closer. The same can be said of the stories I tell, they are never as vibrant and amazing as I first imagined. I get closer with each new book. Each time we attempt to bring the ethereal into solid form we learn and in the process of learning our dreams expand. We are locked in a race, our skill never quite matching our dreams. Even so, I can speak from experience when I say that achieving your dreams will be worth every ounce you are willing to pour into them.
All of us are dreamers. We are all passionate about something, all of us have something we are working towards be it big or small. “We may not always succeed, we may change our mind, we might not make any money, we don’t have the time.” These are the things we tell ourselves that prevent us from dreaming. What if you did succeed? What if you didn’t change your mind and you did make money? What if you had the energy? Would it have been worth it? My argument is yes. Your dreams have worth before they are ever completed. They inspire us. They give us purpose a reason to look towards a brighter tomorrow. We just need to reach out and make the impossible possible.