Spring Break
The Daily OrangeWhen dreams and reality come together
By Noralil Fores
Posted: 9/28/05, 12:36 AM EST Section: Opinion
People always say that you hold dreams in one hand and realities in the other. Sometimes, when a person is lucky, he can cup his hands together so that the dreams and the realities mix, one blending inseparably from the other.
In some ways, college students are always seeking that exact mix. We go to class to turn in papers that we wrote at 3 a.m. We make things then break them and make them again. We are constantly looking for a way to negotiate a compromise between the little mysteries that dance around lightly in our unconscious and the strict realities that we're given as we go along.
To achieve this mix, however haphazard it may seem, all successful dreams must have an aim, senior psychology major Ashley Goldstein said.
"Some people think above and beyond what is possible," she said. "Some dreams are too vague."
Perhaps, this lack of clear intent is what distinguishes a dream from an ambition or aspiration. While dreams are often defined as "wild states of abstraction," ambitions and aspirations refer to tangible goals, pieces of the life puzzle put together proactively.
"The reality is the actions you take to get your dreams," a junior civil engineering major Darien Carr said.
But, these actions may not be perfect, may never yield the desired result, and so it can feel as if a dream has failed entirely when in fact it may just barely have missed its mark. Or, for that matter, you may have missed your mark for a reason: to find something better.
"Dreams are not set in stone," senior biochemistry major Kimberly Sanders said. "You experience different things every day. A dream changes not because it's unattainable but because your ideas change."
In some ways, every person is always seeking the mix between dreams and reality. With every passing year, we'll still be looking for ways to negotiate compromises. But, along the course of this journey, we will change just as our elusive dreams and strict realities will. And, it's unlikely we'll notice that everything has blended inseparably as we cupped our hands together.
Noralil Fores is a graduate student in magazine, newspaper and online journalism. You can e-mail her at nrfores@syr.edu.
In some ways, college students are always seeking that exact mix. We go to class to turn in papers that we wrote at 3 a.m. We make things then break them and make them again. We are constantly looking for a way to negotiate a compromise between the little mysteries that dance around lightly in our unconscious and the strict realities that we're given as we go along.
To achieve this mix, however haphazard it may seem, all successful dreams must have an aim, senior psychology major Ashley Goldstein said.
"Some people think above and beyond what is possible," she said. "Some dreams are too vague."
Perhaps, this lack of clear intent is what distinguishes a dream from an ambition or aspiration. While dreams are often defined as "wild states of abstraction," ambitions and aspirations refer to tangible goals, pieces of the life puzzle put together proactively.
"The reality is the actions you take to get your dreams," a junior civil engineering major Darien Carr said.
But, these actions may not be perfect, may never yield the desired result, and so it can feel as if a dream has failed entirely when in fact it may just barely have missed its mark. Or, for that matter, you may have missed your mark for a reason: to find something better.
"Dreams are not set in stone," senior biochemistry major Kimberly Sanders said. "You experience different things every day. A dream changes not because it's unattainable but because your ideas change."
In some ways, every person is always seeking the mix between dreams and reality. With every passing year, we'll still be looking for ways to negotiate compromises. But, along the course of this journey, we will change just as our elusive dreams and strict realities will. And, it's unlikely we'll notice that everything has blended inseparably as we cupped our hands together.
Noralil Fores is a graduate student in magazine, newspaper and online journalism. You can e-mail her at nrfores@syr.edu.
