Walt Disney once said “If you can dream it, you can do it”, and I believe that I can only do something if I have dreamed it before. Whenever I talk about my future dreams, people tell me to stop dreaming so high and to focus on more easily achieving goals. But it was Amelia Earhart’s dreams that made her the first woman to fly over the Atlantic in June 17, 1928 and it was Salgueiro Maia and his fellow captains’ dream for freedom that made possible the end of the Portuguese dictatorship in April 25, 1974. And I could continue all day long telling you a million things that were only possible because humankind dreamt. If I don’t have high expectations I will never, ever, stop being mediocre. And that is something I know for sure, so whenever I speculate on my future I dream, and I dream high. You may say I’m a dreamer…
Martin Luther King had a dream that in America, black and white people could live in peace, together, as equals. And he never gave up his dream. He fought for it until the end. As he said “And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream”. And this is why Barak Obama, a black man, is now the president of the United States of America.
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one…
I also want to make a difference in this world. I want to contribute for poverty eradication, like Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, did. This economist from Bangladesh is the creator of microcredit, which actually gave the poorest among the poor a chance to fight for their own dreams. Obviously not all of us will win Nobel Prizes, but that is not required at all. There are the small actions of everyday that, in the end, make a real difference. And this kind of thing spreads just the same way that the dominos fall effect. One sets the example of what should be done, and all the rest of us, eventually, will follow that example. Of course it is not this simple, because doing the right thing is hard, or everyone would do it, but I think that our world is absolutely worth the effort. And it is possible to put an end, a full stop, on shameful problems such as poverty, hunger, global warming, wars… If only we could stop thinking so much on our personal issues, and more on the whole world’s best interests… I believe that we have the power to make the place we live in, in an awesome place to live. But that is only going to happen if we act, and if we act now.
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one, I hope someday you will join us…
Anyway, it is very important that we all find out what we want, whatever it is. Whether it is to be a painter or kindergarten teacher, it doesn’t really matter, but we must have our objectives quite clear. Otherwise we will wake up in a couple of years and, looking back, we will realize that we’ve been wasting our lives, be it in college or in bars, working or dating, would have been more a result of luck than of self-willingness. And if there was not any commitment, life may have been a waste. So, the question is, are we willing to rely our future on luck or will we be the ones deciding our own path? This path is long and hard, that is true, but it can also be pleasant and rewarding, and that is on us. Undoubtedly, the path is underneath our feet.
I can set education as an example of what I am trying to tell you here. Some people say that Portuguese students work much less than other developed countries students. But we are not less capable… I think that the problem is, the less we are asked for, the less we do. And the less people expect from us, the less we will try to impress them. At least that works for me. So, educators should have high expectations regarding their students, and this would be a starting engine for a real change, which would lead to the burst of a new generation of over achievers.
Randy Pausch, an American Professor, said “Failing to plan is planning to fail”, and so it is with our lives. If we don’t plan, if we don’t dream, we will never do anything. Even if our dreams do not come true, we had a purpose, we had an aim, and we will, nevertheless, succeed.
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one, I hope someday you will join us, and the world will live as one.
As someone said before, I will shoot for the moon. Even if I miss, I will land among the stars.