We come to this world innocent and full of energy. We have no expectations of anything, we just have deep passion and dreams. But as we grow up, our childhood objectives become victims of our experience. They slowly turn from objectives to dreams. And we consider them nothing but our wildest dreams which, through painful experiences and disillusion, have become even tamer. In a similar way you can see how a wild lion loses its strength and tenacity once it’s captured and doomed to live in a zoo, you can feel how your childhood dreams become a victim of responsibility, financial hardships, and overall life experiences. The lion becomes weak as he realizes he can’t break the physical barriers preventing it to experience the wild. Our childhood dreams lose power as we realize real life isn’t as we thought it was – or that is what we assume. We throw our childhood dreams inside a mental cage, hoping they stay there, as it hurts too much to reminisce about what once could’ve been.
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Ask a child what they want to be when they grow up. They make no distinctions between what they want to be and what they are going to be. That’s an adult thing. You’d love to become a doctor and travel the world, helping the poor. But you are scared because of med school and instead settle for accounting. That’s what your family wanted anyways. A childhood’s head doesn’t work that way and they don’t discriminate. Everything from a doctor, lawyer, fireman to president, superhero, and ninja. Everything is a hand’s reach away for a kid. And you used to think the same way.
Somehow you came up to the conclusion -or sudden realization- that your childhood dreams are not to be pursued, and it’s better to settle down. But you should never let go of something as precious as your childhood dreams. Of course, you might not be able to become a superhero, but this should not limit yourself. What does a superhero do? They help others, protect those who are vulnerable and become a shining example of the good things in this life. You might lose the cape and x-ray vision, but you can do all of these things. You can become a police officer, you can become a fireman and you can become a doctor. You can still do good in the community and make your inner child happy with your decisions. Maybe your childhood dreams are closer to the realistic side of things: instead of a superhero, you want to become a musician. You picked up a guitar or started piano lessons when you were a kid, and dropped them soon before college. Who’s to say you cannot live off music? You may not sell out stadiums, but you can make your music reach anyone who has an internet connection. You can turn a nice environment into a great experience if you play your music for the people there, even if the venue is small.
You should never let go of your childhood dreams, even if your life experience made you believe they were reckless and impossible. Perhaps a career change is something you don’t want to do. You have a 9 to 5 that pays the bills and stability makes you happy. You shouldn’t throw that overboard because you wanted to become an astronaut when you were three years old. But you probably still love the same things you did when you were in kindergarten. You may not walk on the moon and travel through the stars. But your stable 9 to 5 might give you the possibility of buying a telescope and watching outer space and its beauty.
The matter of fact is you still have a hold of that childhood passion you believe lost. It might be buried deep inside from fear of pain and disillusionment. But you can retrieve it from the depths of yourself. You can always open up that once deep-buried box and your childhood dreams are going to be there, waiting for you. Of course, you might have to adjust your expectations. You may not become the next president but you can help your local community – or shoot for the stars and try to fix the system and go for it. You might not become a world-class musician, but you can pick up your dusted cello once again and go back to weekly lessons. Following your childhood dreams might make you turn into a happier, better adult.
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