A Word From Will

I, like many other college students, admittedly have a hard time focusing on my work, and will oftentimes find myself on Twitter or Facebook instead of Microsoft Word or Blackboard.

After many hours of online “research,” I have concluded that one of the all-time greatest things on the internet that should be viewed when procrastinating on work is “Humans of New York.”

You have probably seen some of the posts—curated by photographer and filmmaker Brandon Stanton—that feature a photo of someone in New York alongside a quote of theirs. Usually the quotes people give revolve around a story of their life, and the topics range from inspirational and perhaps whimsical to utterly heartbreaking.

I have discovered that one of the most depressing things to read is stories about middle-aged individuals who say they have given up on their dreams in life. There are hundreds of posts of musicians, actors and businessman alike sitting on benches in Manhattan who seemingly all share one thing: they gave up.

Not only is it bleak to read the stories of those who have given up on their biggest wish in life, it is shocking to see just how many people who said their dream is out of reach, that it isn’t in the cards or that they regret their choices in life.

In fact, I was curious enough to see how common it was that I Googled “How many people give up on their dreams,” and found a study from San Diego State University. It stated only 32 percent of adults over the age of 30 claim to be “very happy” due to an increasing rate of people not fulfilling what they expected out of life.

From talking to my fellow classmates, I have come to believe it is not just those over 30, either. I have talked to many students who seem to already be backtracking on their dreams in life because they do not believe it is feasible or realistic.

I do not know whether it is our culture or the advice from older generations that convinces us to work nine-to-five jobs that we hate because it pays more than jobs we love, but I think it is beyond foolish for our generation to give up on our dreams before they even start.

Part of the problem is that our generation believes they know more than God when it comes to life choices. We no longer live in a society that prioritizes God first, knowing that he will fulfill the greatest desires of our heart, but one that tells God it is unrealistic to follow our desires.

I believe one of the many ways God communicates to us is by giving us interests and passions in life that will make us successful and bring us closer to him. Falling away from your dreams, then, is telling God that you are too certain of your failure to trust him to make you successful, so we instead settle for a future that is feasible and realistic.

But since when is God limited to what is feasible and realistic? We no longer ask the same God who made the sun stand still to make our mountains move. We just ask him for a $60,000 yearly salary and a 401k.

We do not trust God to do the impossible, so we rely on ourselves to do what is possible with what we have, forgetting we have an omnipotent, omniscient God who works in our favor and creates miracles all around us.

At the bottom line, it just seems that this new generation of ours does not believe we can be one of those miracles.

Young is the editor-in-chief.