*it's time to put something worth reading on this blog. from the Philippine Daily Inquirer's Youngblood column.*

Remember when dreams used to have nothing to do with our lives?

There was a time in all our lives when our young selves looked at dreams as nothing more than interesting intermissions in a night’s sleep. We would dream of magical beings, topsy-turvy worlds, or of sheep jumping over the moon because the cow got tired. Or we would dream of horrible monsters, frightful beings, or politicians (in the form of crocodiles) — and wake up screaming and crying, only to be reassured by our parents that dreams are a different world entirely. Our nightmares can’t touch us. Relax, eat, play, and sleep again. Everything’s going to be all right.

Then we enter school and learn Values Education. We start understanding the funny pictures we see on TV and learn to anticipate our favorite shows. We start trying to listen in on grown-up conversations. And with all this new information coming into our lives, we start wanting to identify ourselves with something. What do we want to be when we grow up? I wanna be a doctor. I wanna be a policeman. I wanna be Voltes V. Suddenly “to dream” takes on a whole new meaning. We don’t realize it, but these dreams transform our lives and give us goals to set. Suddenly, we want to grow up because, idealists at heart, we want to be what we dream of becoming.

For thousands of students my age, we can now only look back at those times with nostalgia. We are attending debuts, getting driver’s licenses. We can look at ourselves and, without the slightest trace of doubt, pronounce ourselves “grown up.” Logically, this means that the dreams we formed so long ago should now be within our reach. So now that we have grown up, what are we?

All through the process of growing up, something has changed. We mature, we think, and we experience life — or even just the slice of it that can be experienced in school. We form friendships, do projects, take tests, join committees and clubs, and literally cycle through the years. Now, thousands of hopefuls (myself included) suddenly find themselves at a crossroads.

In grade school, high school, things were fine. But now it is college or bust. Where to go? What to do? Long discussions ensue. We are seniors barely a month away from graduation, having gone through over a dozen years of the maturing process. In trying to decide our next step, we find ourselves dreaming again.

But what are we dreaming of now? Long ago, Kid A dreamed of becoming a doctor so he could cure sick people and make them feel happy. Now, Kid A dreams of getting into a top medical school.

Kid B dreamed of becoming a policeman so he could fight crime and help his community. Now, Kid B (most likely at the prodding of his parents) dreams of getting into law school.

Kid C wants to be an engineer (when we were kids, we thought engineers worked on railroads or car engines). Kids D all the way down to Z are too busy to dream, and so they are opting to study business, hoping to eventually work for multinational corporations. Our dreams can now be expressed in the format “BS/AB _______________.”

Step back a few months, and then kids were dreaming about passing college entrance examinations. Of course, for who in his right mind would still be dreaming about Voltes V?

What are the implications of this subtle paradigm shift? Consider: What happens if Kid A doesn’t qualify for medical school or his parents cannot afford sending him to one? Kid A’s dream becomes a nightmare. He feels lost, confused, and afraid. He can’t decide what to do next. How does Kid A suddenly fight his bad luck? He will never wake up from this nightmare. “Binangungot siya,” we would say in Tagalog. He may become discouraged, defeated, unable to believe in anything anymore, especially himself. He cannot get into medical school, and so there is no future for him, he might be thinking.

But Kid A could also wake up, and get on with his life, because his parents had taught him that dreams — and nightmares — are not real. For him it is goodbye to medical school, but he should not fall into another nightmare, because nightmares are unpleasant.

Or Kid A could realize that he is in a dream — and discover that within the dream, the world is at his command. He can take charge, control his dream, overcome all obstacles, and move beyond his personal limitations on to greater, previously unimagined things.

Researchers call such dreams lucid dreams. These are dreams in which we can actively participate.

Science has proven that every dream can be made lucid. We have often heard of opportunities in life that will make our dreams reality. I propose that we give ourselves some credit and acknowledge that our dreams do in fact happen. Are we worried that our dreams are not going the way we want them to? Don’t worry. Reality is far from being over. In a perfect world, Kid A would at some point meet Kids B to Z — and then all of us kids would help each other turn our dreams into reality.

Someone has said that life is but a dream. That doesn’t mean that life is not worth living.

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