For Those Of Us Who Have Never Stopped Dreaming

When we were kids everyone told us that we could grow up to be anything we wanted to be. So we dreamt big. We created worlds out of Legos, made ourselves the head chefs with our easy-bake-ovens and dared to see our futures full of limitless opportunities.

We wanted to be singers, actors, professional athletes, cowboys and astronauts. We wanted to change the world.

And then somewhere along the line they started to beat it out of us. Dreaming became foolish and impractical. There was no security in entering the professions we wanted to when we were young.

In high school we bubbled our lives away, searching for the college major that sucked the least.

The only thing that became feasible was the 9-5 workforce.

Not everyone succumbed to the norm however. Some of us traveled and actually attempted to pursue our dreams. Others found their dreams in different things, like being in a relationship or having kids early.

Some of us are absolutely cut out for the 9-5 grind. They enjoy the security, constant financial support and the ritualistic nature of it all. But a lot of us cannot even grasp living that sort of life. I am one of them. I will never be satisfied working a 9-5 job. I completely respect and admire people who do, but it has never been something that even remotely appealed to me.

I feel like most people grow out of their desires to be adventurous. Some people may even become enthusiastic at the thought of having a steady job. But I never grew out of the idea of dreaming.

To me, life is about so much more than sitting in an office for 8 hours a day.

Life is about learning the people and places around me. It is about falling in love with cities as much as you can fall in love with a person.

I could not imagine having to do something professionally that didn’t make me feel complete. I am no stranger to the fact that life is not all about being happy, but I am willing to strive for feel that feeling of a dopamine rush as much as I can in my short lifetime.

Working a 9-5 would make me a slave to the dollar; I would completely fall into that trap.

I do not want to do a job for the money. I want to work hard at something that makes me feel fulfilled. I want to make a difference in the lives of people around me.

Life is about building connections to those around us. It is about becoming a student of the world and soaking in the moments that don’t exist within a cubicle. It is about gaining as much knowledge as we can from the places we see and the people we choose to spend our time with.

We only have so much time on this mind-blowing, gorgeous earth to take it all in. I want to inhale and exhale as much of the world as I can. I couldn’t do that from an office.

There are some of us who never stopped dreaming. And our dreams may have shifted a little bit from what they used to be when we were kids, but it is important that we keep that spark alive within us.

I live my life to feel alive. I have felt it through love, through travel and through personal connections. I have fallen in love with landmarks and people alike. I jump off the precipice of what so many people stand for, and I could not be happier with that.

Life goes so far beyond the dollar. Life goes far beyond monotony and routines. And for those of us who dare to dive in head first, feeling alive never came so easily.