We all have that one goal in life, that one dream, that one thing that we feel is our purpose in life. After writing a couple of essays for scholarships, and changing my major, again, I think I finally realized what I've always known mine was.
I recently changed my major and became an English Teaching Major. Really, I should have known after my first semester when I made packets for a reading discussion I decided to do as my companion piece to my research paper. First of all, I wrote a research paper on YA novels in the AP classroom, then instead of doing a website like everyone else in my class was, I decided to write a lesson plan and ten recruit High School seniors to participate in an AP level discussion with me. Who does that? That should have been an indication about what I wanted to do, but nah, I felt like pursuing French for a year. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my degree, and when people asked me, I told them that I was going to be an author, and French was just a back-up plan.
Contrast that with the essays just wrote for scholarships in the English Teaching department. When asked why I was pursuing the degree I was, the words came easily: My literature teachers taught me how to appreciate literature, and apply it to my life, getting me through the very hard times my family went through. I have been realizing recently that while my dad was unemployed for three years, I was being blessed, because every time I prayed to ask my Heavenly Father what I could do to help my parents, the only answer I got was to write. I thought I just wasn't listening well enough, because I never made money off of it in High School, when my parents needed the money. However, when I wrote, I felt calm. I felt at peace. I was doing something that might be able to help my parents.
Flash forward to now, I can't live without writing. If I am doing something that takes me away from writing, I don't feel motivated to continue. I stay up late into the night writing, following the ideas that just keep coming. I am an author, and I am barely 20. I stun people when I tell them that. All of it because I began writing as an answer to my father's unemployment.
When I tell someone why I want to write, why I want to give my books to the world, I tell them it's because I want to share with them my story, I want to inspire young adults like I was inspired by many great books. In the depths of despair, when my family was terrified we would never see an end, I was able to remain positive, I kept my spirit of optimism because I had a caring Father in Heaven that blessed me to enjoy literature, literature that uplifted, that showed that no matter what hell you walked through, there would be brighter days ahead.
I have a plaque on my wall that I made while I was in High School, on which is the line from the last line of the hymn "As Zion's Youth in Latter Days". It says:
Contrast that with the essays just wrote for scholarships in the English Teaching department. When asked why I was pursuing the degree I was, the words came easily: My literature teachers taught me how to appreciate literature, and apply it to my life, getting me through the very hard times my family went through. I have been realizing recently that while my dad was unemployed for three years, I was being blessed, because every time I prayed to ask my Heavenly Father what I could do to help my parents, the only answer I got was to write. I thought I just wasn't listening well enough, because I never made money off of it in High School, when my parents needed the money. However, when I wrote, I felt calm. I felt at peace. I was doing something that might be able to help my parents.
Flash forward to now, I can't live without writing. If I am doing something that takes me away from writing, I don't feel motivated to continue. I stay up late into the night writing, following the ideas that just keep coming. I am an author, and I am barely 20. I stun people when I tell them that. All of it because I began writing as an answer to my father's unemployment.
When I tell someone why I want to write, why I want to give my books to the world, I tell them it's because I want to share with them my story, I want to inspire young adults like I was inspired by many great books. In the depths of despair, when my family was terrified we would never see an end, I was able to remain positive, I kept my spirit of optimism because I had a caring Father in Heaven that blessed me to enjoy literature, literature that uplifted, that showed that no matter what hell you walked through, there would be brighter days ahead.
I have a plaque on my wall that I made while I was in High School, on which is the line from the last line of the hymn "As Zion's Youth in Latter Days". It says:
As Zion's Youth in Latter Days,
Triumphant, pure and strong.
I used it as a visual reminder of the lessons I was learning. I knew that if I endured, if I held to my standards, I would emerge triumphant, pure, and strong. And by hanging that plaque on my wall, I was able to redefine what I viewed as triumphant. Did I will my 400 meter Track races. No. But was I Triumphant? I tried my hardest, and I improved every time, eventually no longer running last place, so yes, I was triumphant. And now look at me. I'm a published author at 20. I think I'm triumphant.
Dreams
So then, what does this have to do with dreams? I think our trials define our dreams. Someone who grows up in poverty dreams that they will be able to get a successful job as an attorney and pull themselves up so they can give their children a better life, so they can fight for a better life for others. Likewise, my dream, my purpose, was found in the darkness of the trial my family lived through. Literature helped me through the despair of my teenage years, heck it's helping me through the nonexistence of a serious relationship, so my dream is to help other people with literature, both by writing my own novels, and by teaching our youth how to use literature to help them in their lives.
How will you use your dream? Where will your dream take you?
How will you use your dream? Where will your dream take you?