“A dream is a strong desire to do or become something that would make you ridiculously happy, which, in turn, is both rewarding and fulfilling, “ said Mr. Campbell, a teacher we all know and respect. He is exactly right.

Close your eyes and take a deep breathe. For just a moment, let any and all negativity, fear, and doubts drain away from you- and imagine your deepest dream. Now, in this moment, let yourself believe in it with all your heart. Does it make you happy?

Juniors and Seniors– now is the time when we begin to prepare for the rest of our lives. We are about to embark on an adventure, whether it be college, the workforce, traveling, etc, where we will make big decisions that have a lasting effect. Consider all the responsibilities we have in figuring out what we want and what we need– what role, if any, do the significant people in our life have in our decisions?

Now go back to that dream you were just imagining. Your dream. Whatever it may be and pursue it. There will be people who will try to discourage you. It is possible, that they will tell you that your dream is “unrealistic” or that it is “impractical.” It is also possible that this person is a parent or a teacher. They are only right about one thing…you do risk failure when you follow a big dream. The bigger the dream, the bigger the risk. Yet the people that change the world are the risk takers…are the ones that believe in those dreams– no matter what.

“What I feared most at your age was not poverty, but failure.” ( J.K. Rowling, Harvard Commencement Speech) J.K. Rowling is no stranger to failure. She herself was poor, working a job she did not dream of working in, and in her own words “the biggest failure she knew.” Now she is one of the wealthiest women in Britain and the creator of the Harry Potter stories that have changed the world. Yet, it wasn’t magic that took her from failure to success- it was two things: belief in her dream and grit.

Every single person will inevitably fail at some point. Every single person that has failed can now either choose to stand back up and keep working towards their mountain or they can walk away from the dream. Failure is not permanent. In fact, failure lasts only as long as you let it affect you.

“I think we are put on this earth to try. Like really hard. And to support each other’s dreams,” said Daniel Whitt, Instructional Technology Coordinator. The way you overcome failure is by working hard and surrounding yourself with people that support you.

This dream that you have, whatever it may be, imagine it as a mountain. Neil Gaiman, a successful writer of today, had insight into pursuing a dream. He said, “Sometimes the way to do what you hope to do will be clear cut, and sometimes it will be almost impossible to decide whether or not you are doing the correct thing, because you’ll have to balance your goals and hopes with feeding yourself, paying debts, finding work, settling for what you can get. Something that worked for me was imagining that where I wanted to be[…]was a mountain. A distant mountain. My goal. And I knew that as long as I kept walking towards the mountain I would be all right.” (Address to the University of the Arts, May 17, 2012)

The future is terrifying. Failure is terrifying. The future is also exhilarating. Failure is only temporary. So, as you attempt to figure out what you want to do with your life, let yourself dream big. But know this, the bigger you dream, the harder you will have to work, and the stronger you will have to believe, in order to achieve it.

Bob jones senior Kamron Sanderfer isn’t afraid to dream big: “My dream is to become an actor and through acting start a charity for fatherless sons. My favorite Broadway actor told me to keep going so I’m gonna keep going. It made me want it more.”

There are so many people out there in the world, and in your own community, that are living their dreams. So my parting words for you are these: Be brave enough to dream, strong enough to work hard, and passionate enough to believe.