If Only I Had Known

Life is a wonderful thing. We go through various stages, each bringing new and exciting challenges and lessons. Look at babies. When you expose them to a new environment, they tend to be magically quiet, observing all the new things around them and trying to make sense of everything in their ‘tiny’ brains. Adults aren’t much different. Many of us are fascinated by new places, new things, and new experiences.

I think one underlying cause is that we are inquisitive creatures who enjoy learning. Just like other animals on our planet, we learn from experience, and trial and error. One thing that distinguishes us from other creatures, however, is our ability to record and share our experiences, so others can learn without having to have the same experience for themselves. We read books, watch movies, hear stories, and we can imagine ourselves going through the same situations and feeling similar emotions. Learning from others is what has allowed us to develop our societies, come up with inventions, travel to space, and achieve many other feats. However, one thing that must not be forgotten is the importance of following your dreams.

Follow your dreams! It almost sounds like a cliche, because we hear it so often. When do we start taking it seriously, though? Is it when we are young, full of crazy and irrational hopes and aspirations? Or is it when we start getting old, feeling stress from working in the system, and looking for a better way? For me, it’s the latter. It’s just now that I’ve truly learned the importance of exploring the limits of your own interests.

When I was younger, I had quite a few talents and dreams. I was a decent tennis player, and also had quite an interest in building design. When asked what my dream was, I’d always respond ‘to be a professional tennis player and an architect’. It was a very realizable dream. I started playing in a few tennis tournaments with a degree of success, and in school my technical drawing grades weren’t bad either. It was then that life happened. Maybe I got bored, maybe I got inquisitive, but I started playing other sports and taking on new hobbies. I always thought that because I was young I could try everything I wanted to, and I would always have time in the future to figure out my real passion. I was young and naive.

Now I know that there is no golden road with a big sign leading to my perfect path or passion. As much as we grow and change, we still remain the same. Our passions only disappear if we don’t devote time or attention to them or have some negative outside influence. I wish I knew the importance of sticking with something to the end when I was younger. I jumped around from one thing to another, feeling as if my whole life was a playground. However, life is no playground, unless you make it your own playground by exploring the limits of your passions. Once you truly believe in yourself, and do the best at whatever you want to do, I see no bad ending for you.

Jordan

Vocabulary

fascinated (adj.) ? to be very interested in something or someone
underlying (adj.) ? used to identify the fundamental or basic idea, cause, problem, etc.
inquisitive (adj.) ? to ask many questions to increase one’s knowledge; curious
irrational (adj.) ? not thinking clearly; not able to use reason or good judgement
aspiration (n) ? something that a person really wants to achieve; goal