Dare to Dream

2010-03-03T11:16:00.000-08:00

- I am a dreamer. I have been one since I was a little kid and I think that has a lot to do with the way I was raised. My parents always dared me to dream. They dared me to be the best that I could possibly be in everything I do. I went through the typical stages of a young boy. I wanted to be the hero that overcame severe pain to save the day or the basketball star that hit the game winning shot to win the NBA championship. Now, as I have gotten older my drive to dream has not decreased any, but my dreams themselves have become considerably more realistic.
- I am a freshman in college now and I have found that many of the dreams I had as a kid are coming to a close. I always dreamed of playing a college basketball team, I always wanted to pursue a career in Physical Education, and I always knew that Oklahoma Wesleyan University was where that was going to happen. So the question now is, what’s next? Do my dreams stop here? Obviously everyone has the dream of having a home, a pretty family, and a successful job, but is that really dreaming? The “American Dream” isn’t really a dream at all. Rather, it is a standard of living in the United States that is just kind of assumed, beyond that is where we dream. But the problem with Americans age 18 and above is we have forgotten how to really dream.
- Gone are the days where we dreamed of fighting the dragon and saving the princess, or being pursued by the prince and caught up in the adventure at hand. We have forgotten how to dream. There is so much out there in this world and we as individuals need to be pushed to reach for the stars. Our culture stands over us and tells us what is normal and acceptable. They suck any dreaming left out of 18 to 22 year old kids like myself. What we need the most help doing, is breaking free of the disease of normal, and daring to dream again.
- What does that mean? Obviously we aren’t going to run around and dream of chasing fire-breathing dragons with swords but we can still dream. We can dream of making a difference in the world around us. As I sit here and think about “How I can dream to make a difference?” I can’t think of anything. Maybe that is the problem. Our dreams have been suppressed by society for so long that we don’t even know what to dream for.
- That is what Oklahoma Wesleyan University can do for me, it can teach me how to dream again. You can show me where do I go from here and how do I make an impact on the world around me once I get there. Do I chase after the perfect career with enough money to support lots of causes or is there a better use of my time elsewhere? What position can I put myself in, in order to serve best? How can I make an impact here and now, which will shape my dreams for the future? These are questions that all students have, myself included, and it is questions like this that we desperately need answered!
- When I think about the world around me and the difference I want to make, the sheer size of that task overwhelms me. I tend to be an optimistic person and I want to do all I can to reach peers. Maybe, I need to scale back my view of whom I want to reach and focus on a smaller group, like my future family for instance. I want to get married, and have a family with around two kids. Maybe it isn’t about how I can impact the entire world, maybe it is about being the entire world to three people! What can I do today, to put myself in the position to most positively affect these three lives I see in my future.
- I believe that the best way to make an impact on those three worlds is to change my life, starting with following Jesus Christ. This is one way that I believe Oklahoma Wesleyan University as an institution is doing an amazing job. You are encouraging us in about every way possible to seek out a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that will ultimately impact the three worlds in my future more then my dreams can. If I have been encouraged to follow my God in all I do throughout my college career and can carry that on to share with my family, then my time here will not be wasted.
- What it comes down to is that I believe that Oklahoma Wesleyan University has the opportunity to give me a direction in life. You can encourage me to dream again, you can give me a quality education without much trouble, and you can inspire me to seek out a life that pleases the Lord. In my mind that is the most important thing. When encouraging us to seek and find dreams fails. When pushing us academically to reach our potential fails; God won’t. That is the single greatest thing that you can continue to do for me. That is what matters.