Maybe Don’t Follow Your Dreams?
A young man sits at his desk, silently weeping to himself as he fills out tax form after tax form. Around him, there are forty other guys hunched over in the same position, dressed exactly alike, all wearing identical gray slacks with off-white button downs. But, this guy, our guy, is different, unlike the other clones who pair their office attire with sensible dress shoes, he wears Converse- the most rebellious of all sneakers. Clearly, he’s the renegade we’ve been waiting for, unwilling to sacrifice his individual spirit to, “the man.”
As the weeks pass on our guy grows increasingly less satisfied with his average life. The dull monotony of his daily routine wears on him till he can no longer take it! One day he wakes up, marches directly to work- not bothering to change out of his pajamas, charges into his boss’s office and liberates himself, giving a grand, heroic speech before quitting.
After quitting, our guy follows his dream and becomes his generation’s most beloved banjo player, all while capturing the heart of his local, neighborhood barista in the process. The story ends, leaving us to believe that our guy, the special guy, found true happiness strumming the strings of his banjo.
If this story sounds cliched and familiar, that’s because it is.
My friends and I, along with all other 20-somethings across America, have been told this exact story again and again throughout our entire lives. Movies like Rocky, American Beauty, The Devil Wears Prada, The Social Network, and even Ratatouille, they all taught us the same thing; follow your dreams. I mean, if a rat could be a chef, we could certainly achieve our goals, right?
For a while, this mantra served us well. We were encouraged to explore our passions, ignoring pesky limitations when they revealed themselves. It didn’t matter that we were only mediocre soccer players, sang off-key, and made sculptures which most closely resembled meatloaf, we were enjoying ourselves. Envisioning our futures, we imagined extraordinary careers as sports stars, famous musicians, and celebrity chefs. Unsurprisingly, as we filtered through high school and into college, we retired these dreams, adopting more pragmatic aspirations.
Throughout college, my peers and I worked tirelessly to gain the skills and knowledge needed to achieve our professional ambitions. Never settling for mediocrity, we insisted on rising to the top of our fields, taking every opportunity afforded to us. On graduation, when I looked around at my fellow graduates, I was pleased to see a group of people who had earned their diplomas through hard work and dedication.
Yet, as we begin to embark on the adult lives we spent so much time theorizing about in our youth, I can’t help but notice, none of us seem happy. Despite being hired in desirable positions and working in fields we’re passionate about, most of us are left unsatisfied.
To answer the question of why we all feel this way, I return back to the mantra, “follow your dreams.”
After being inundated with tales of people who quit their desk jobs to follow their passions, our jobs, which most would consider traditional, seem boring if not insufferable. None of the protagonists we idolized loved their jobs as financial analysts or construction engineers, they all struck out on irregular paths. By believing that to live a happy life one must follow an exceptional path, any accomplishment we achieve innately falls short of satisfaction.
Few people will live truly exceptional lives, for most people, dreams remain just that, dreams. Fortunately. this doesn’t mean the majority of us are subjected to miserable existences, void of all purpose and pleasure. Contrary to what we’ve been told, it appears that life’s most common experiences also illicit great happiness. This is not to say our lives won’t be sprinkled with miraculous, spectacular moments, I’m sure they will. But waiting for these specific moments, allowing our happiness to be contingent on them, is a waste of the time we’ve got.
The option to follow one’s dreams is important, it’s liberating to know that at any moment we can drop everything and start over. Yet, as we begin to set into our new routines, we must not allow the possibility of something better, the perpetual “what if,” rob us of the unique forms of happiness this period of our lives allows.