What were your childhood dreams?Recently, I've been reading a book, The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch. I didn't know until I read the book, but a lot of professors are asked to give their last lectures in which they're supposed to share what matters or mattered to them the most. Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, gave his very Last Lectures before he died due to terminal cancer. I haven't finished the book yet, but, so far, the chapter titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" had led me to reflect on my own childhood dreams and how I've been achieving the dreams bits by bits. In the book, Pausch shares his list of childhood dreams such as being in zero gravity or being a Disney Imagineer. Surprisingly, he managed to achieve most of his dreams through various ways. Especially the Disney one had impacted him a lot, which made him wear the t-shirt that he wore during his experience as a Disney Imagineer to his actual last lecture. He quotes Walt Disney for his motivations: "If you can dream it, you can do it." Reading Pausch's testimony on making his dreams come true, I thought about my childhood dreams as well. Here is the list: 1) To help people 2) To become a person who has a biography shared with the public (I thought of a book back then, but I'm not sure about which means to go with, due to the booming development of technology.) 3) To become a fashion designer 4) To become a singer 5) To become an announcer There might have been more dreams, but these were the ones that came up to my mind most clearly. As a 20-year-old-myself (in Korean age), I don't have a dream that is the same from the list, except for #1 and #2 since they are more general. As of now, I actually don't know what I want to be. However, my goal is to study behavioral science and business in college and either pursue academia or start working in companies that have the same visions as mine. My dream is to help both the students who don't have the access to education and the students who suffer with academic stress/ pressure either through research or entrepreneurship. As you can tell, the specific occupations I dreamed of are not in the plans for my future anymore. Consequently, when I read the part in The Last Lecture at first, I thought that only applied to the author's life, not mine. However, after a 5-minute-reflection, I realized that I actually have been achieving almost most of my childhood dreams through Youtube! 1) The first one, to help people, is a lot more general than the other ones. I think my study tips for TOEFL and English have helped people who wanted to get more advice online. 2) The second one is something that I want to save for the later stage of my life, but I believe if I continue to upload videos on Youtube throughout my life, my channel would eventually become a collection of my life stories, which I think is not different from a traditional biography. Becoming a fashion designer, a singer, and an announcer have either been achieved already or are in progress to be achieved. 3) While I filmed my first lookbook, I was genuinely excited to share my matching looks to others. 4) Even though I haven't yet, I want to upload a song cover because it is another great passion I have. 4) Being an announcer is a little tricky, but my logic is that all of my videos include a form of unconventional public speaking, since it's not actually in front of people. However, I do feel more confident in speaking in front of camera and eager to share my stories more smoothly and interestingly, as I make more videos. For clarification, by no means, I am trying to show off or brag about my achievements. Actually, for my entire life although it's relatively short, I have regretted having multiple interests. Compared to my friends who had the same interests for most of their lives, I felt lost many times and hopeless because I thought I had no clear direction. Even more, since I have a comparatively new dream as of now, I thought my childhood dreams were in no use. However, by reflecting on the chapter from The Last Lecture, I realized that I have been achieving my dreams through Youtube as I upload videos that I genuinely just want to try out. What I also noticed is that it wasn't very difficult to start working on my dream-list either. As Disney said, I could "do it" if I could "dream of it." Last week, I wrote about how I could just do my work in order to defeat worries and start working on my check-list. This week, I want to share a message that we could just start what we want to do for the future as well. Dreams are dreams because we can cherish our aspirations and ambitions! They are not to be seated nicely somewhere in the deepest and darkest hole in our head. If you're reading this, I hope you also reflect on your childhood dreams and wheteher if you've been achieving any so far!
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