Dreaming.
The other day, I subbed for my mother in a high school class. We were going to talk about their future, about work and education. After telling them about my experiences, taking a gap year and so on, I asked them about what they wanted to do, about their plans.
Some of them had plans. One knew what she wanted to study, and how she wanted to live. Most didn’t, which I think is quite common in that age. What staggered me was how little they’d been thinking about bigger things, things other than careers. One of them had some dreams to share, how she wanted to live in a big house on the countryside, how she wanted to be challenged and challenge herself in doing things that were uncomfortable.
The others came up with things like going to a festival or go on a trip. Nothing big, at all. I’ve been of the opinion that not everyone needs a grand plan, nor sky high ambitions since I was in elementary school. Plans are for some people, high ambitions are for some, and some want to be content.
Yet, I find dreaming useful and at times vital. Regardless of whether that’s one day going to a TED-event, rowing across a lake, running a 5k. We need to dream.
I had a friend in elementary school who happened to stumble in to the craft of tin-smithing. He happened to be pretty good at it, winning an amateur competition without ever having done it before. He wanted to become a tin-smith and work with that. He wanted to do it in our little city in the south of Sweden, so that he could be close to his family and friends.
That’s a plan and a dream. At the time, I wanted to create big things that could change the world.
I think we need some sort of direction, which dreams and plans can provide. They don’t need to be grand. They don’t need to be final. It could even be a plan to figure out what you one day want to do.
Don’t be afraid of dreaming. Regardless of the size of the dream.