Dreams as The Most Important Part of Our Life

Introduction: The Fascination with Airplanes

Airplanes are one of the few things that extremely fascinate me in this life. No doubt, gigantic objects have a way of capturing my attention, and airplanes amaze me the most. I'm filled with awe when they move within my sight; they look like car monsters but are much under the control of human beings. I grew up very inquisitive, but I had many limitations in accessing resourceful information because of the surroundings I found myself in. When I was around the age of seven, I was daunted by the fact that airplanes looked so tiny in the sky when viewed from the ground, yet it was claimed they contained so many people. So, the idea was that airplanes were so tiny that people had to be shrunk in some techy way and then transported to their desired destinations. My fascination did not end there as it filled my entire desire to want to fly one. I had over a hundred paper plane types I imagined myself flying repeatedly, and if you needed a quick favor from me, all you had to do was add "pilot" to my name, and open sesame, I'm all yours.

Dreams as The Most Important Part of Our Life

I had different types of locally handmade airplane prototypes of various tiny sizes, and I always looked forward to my turn of being shrunk to fit into the plane. I know the question you're probably having now, and yes, I did ask people around, but unfortunately, they either didn't know or blatantly told me lies. It's a lie I might tell my kid just for fun anyway, and being the introvert I am, I spent a lot of time alone with my thoughts. However, my imagination was soon cut short as my dream came true when my school announced that it was taking its students on an excursion to the airport, the only old and abandoned airport around my vicinity, which would suffice massively. I can beat my chest to tell you that I looked forward to that event as if it were the coming of Christ.

Finally, when I got to the airport, I was bamboozled by what I saw—a mega gigantic crafted mechanism that had enough space to fit hundreds of people with massive engines and thousands of control buttons. It was, in fact, the most amazing sight I had ever beheld, and yes, it surpassed my imagination. We were allowed to go into one of the abandoned planes to take a look at how the entire interior was set up. There are still no words enough to quantify how I felt that day and even every following week after. The excursion answered a lot of my questions, especially the underlying questions relating to the misconception I had about the airplane's space complexity and the shrinking hullabaloo. I was able to properly align my dreams into more realistic formats, if ever they would stand a chance of happening. Afterwards, my desire to want to become a pilot skyrocketed. The pilot craze was so profound that it became something people around me knew me specifically for. It was my dreamiest dream to become a pilot, to fly a plane, to be in those amazing skies, and just control that majestic craft. It went for nights, drawing jets on anything I could lay my hands on became a constant involuntary hobby.

The Reality Check: When Dreams Meet Limitations

However, the dream came to an end gradually when I understood that the condition I found myself in was not sophisticated enough to aid the pursuit of that career. Without even telling anybody, the whole craze seemed to bring itself to a halt even in the sight of others. It's like when we have a dream, the universe conspires with us to aid us in keeping that dream alive, or if not, why do some things become coincidences when some dreams are ignited, only for those coincidences to occur at that time? Before my uncle bought his first car, he had a dream he drove a car into his compound, and he was sure the car was his, with the way he felt. The next morning, on his way to work, someone tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to come to repark his car because he was obstructing traffic. He was first pissed off—he didn't even own a car—thought the person wanted to mock him, he was also shocked, then confused, then he became happy when he remembered his dream earlier. He bought his two cars one month after. A coincidence, right?

My uncle could achieve his dream, no doubt, but my question lies in this: when a dream has been achieved, what happens to that dream? Is that all there is to be with that dream? I've asked so many people this question, and they've all come up with awesome feedback. One very interesting insight I derived was that people love to dream, no doubt, but sticking to that dream or even watering it enough to take it to fruition is the problem. We are often too quick to abandon ship and return to base, or hop on another dream that's not theirs. Once an endeavor encounters some type of challenge, we are quick to throw these dreams away for lesser, more convenient ones. This post is not based on or directed at these sorts of people and dreamers, but rather on a totally different aspect of dreams. When dreams have been accomplished, what next happens to them? Do they disappear? Or die? Or just stop being a dream! I can classify dreams in two categories: the highest, most pleasurable sense of completion of immeasurable accomplishment in one's existence, and something in the order as the first.

The Nature of Dreams: A Fight Against All Odds

People like to see dreams as accomplishments that cannot be attained naturally but with the eventful event of fate-meet-opportunity kind of scenario. For example, it was Ronaldo's dream to play professional football and be the best in the world. Now, Ronaldo had no connection that would land him in the big leagues, big enough to get him to the World Cup because of his limiting surrounding factors like his financial capabilities and a bunch of reasons that could have worked against him. But that is the thing with dreams; it is a fight of determination against all odds because, in life, nothing is unachievable.

Eventually, Ronaldo achieved his dream in life at a very young age. He got all the awards that ever existed and was the best at everything that concerned his professional football, and he achieved all his dreams. I know another man, an extremely talented athlete. Growing up, his dream was to become the fastest man alive. A lot of people would call that outrightly a big dream, but are dreams really big? Dreams are naturally big, that's why they are called dreams anyway. Anyway, this boy grew up with all odds against his dream, but as fate would have it, he worked his way up to the Olympics and received gold medals for beating all the known records of his category of competition. He achieved his dream and became the fastest man alive. Dreams are like deep itching desires that pump our enthusiasm with positive energy.

Beyond Achievement: The Next Chapter of Dreams

However, when the desires have been met, so does the itch. What next then? An itchless, redundant skin with no sauce. This athlete didn't stop there as he went ahead to dream more. He had a new dream to break his own set record. And guess what, he did. He defeated the world, became the fastest living man, he defeated himself again, and broke his own record. Usain Bolt, the fastest man alive. How then can we qualify dreams in terms of their size? There's no size to dreams; they are just dreams. So I wondered, will this man have another dream after this one? Or what's next, really?

Conclusion: The Ever-Evolving Nature of Dreams

According to research, children are the most prolific dreamers, as they constantly create dreams even when they are involuntarily doing so. Coupled with their unlimited imaginative gift, and the freedom bestowed upon them to act as they wish because they don't know what they are doing and probably can't do any better because they are children, kids. But as they grow up, this freedom is being stripped off by societal expectations of behavior that kills the things we would like to dream about. I know very well that I had a couple of dreams that I outgrew, so yes, dreams can be outgrown, even without being accomplished at all. Dreams don't itch forever; if the time of the itch is not recognized, then we might lose our chances of ever being able to accomplish that dream. But how do we then recognize the itching time of a dream? Join me in my next post as we go further in the conclusion of the trio. Thanks for your time.

References

• APA: Smith, J. (2020). The Psychology of Dreams: Understanding the Mind's Eye. New York, NY: Dream Publishing.
• MLA: Johnson, Emily. "The Infinite Possibilities of Dreaming." Journal of Dream Studies, vol. 12, no. 3, 2021, pp. 45-67.