Reach for the Sky!

Why do I feel that people are trying to crush my dreams?
I grew up being told that I can do anything I want to do; achieve anything I want to achieve. But now that I am at the stage of choosing what I want to do with my life, it feels like I’m being told (in between the lines) to be more realistic. I feel like people think I am not capable of doing what I have always wanted to do; what I have always been great at.

It started with my principal. Ever since I took CALM in grade ten, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. In the past year I have decided how I will achieve that goal; where I will go, and how I will do it. I have my five year plan in place. I felt so proud of myself and like others should be proud of me. But that is not the reaction I have received. My principal came to me, and tried to convince me to go to a career fair (which when I overlooked what career stations were there, I saw that most of them were underachiever jobs, and none of them had anything to do with my passion: science). All the other people invited to this fair were the extreme special needs kids, whom which are still taking elementary and junior high courses. I felt so insulted! No offense to those kids, but I am WAY past that level and WAY more capable of achieving so much more than that. “Is this what she thinks of me?” I thought.

So, I obviously declined the offer. Only to face months more of her trying to convince me even more to look into other options. So now I am getting even more hints that she thinks I am not capable of what I have chosen. She knows I have already gone to career fairs and researched careers very deeply before I chose what I wanted, and now I am being told to keep looking. Way to say “you can do anything you choose.” Sounds more like “maybe you need to chose something a little easier.” Ummmm…….excuse me? I have spent my life deeply buried in research and projects of biology, I have such a deep understanding of if from what I have learnt on my spare time, so much that biology 30 feels like review to me. So once again, I find myself being underestimated.

After brushing this all aside, I am then being told by my mother and psychologist that I need to look at other options. But I’ll say it again: I have already gone through that whole process. They keep telling me “well what if what you want to do doesn’t work out?” OUCH! Again I feel like I am being told that I am not capable of what I have chosen. Which is even more confusing that it was only a couple months ago that I was being told to narrow my career choice. And now they are telling me to broaden it. Jeeze this is so frusterating!

I am tired of being underestimated. I always found, that in childhood, I was being told to reach for the sky. Now I am being told to reach for what is in my reach. You’d think that, in knowing me so well, they would know I never settle when it comes to my achievements. I have always reached for the sky and I always will. I’m tired of people assuming that I cannot do something, without even giving me the chance to try. Good encouragement eh?

The point I am trying to make is that, when you get older, you are given (what people see to be as) more realistic views. But no one ever got anywhere by playing it safe. No one ever made it by listening to being told that they cannot do what they try to. If anyone tries to tell you that you are not able to do something, I think that should be an invitation to a challenge. I plan on proving everyone wrong who is telling me to try something else; something easier.

I challenge you to prove anyone wrong who tells you that you are not capable of doing something. Reach for the sky, and don’t settle for anything!