It's sometimes amazing to remember our childhood dreams. Yesterday I remembered a nice list that I used to do over and over when I was a kid, it was a list of all the countries that I want to, or would visit when I grow up. I think it included a little more than 30 countries. However my visiting each country of them wasn't anything like having a few weeks trip. I had my own interpretation of visiting a country. I had two categories, places that I want to know very very well, and others that I just want to visit. I used to say that what I want is to go to every one of the top list countries and stay there for a year, during which I would learn the country's language, listen to its music, read its books and take pictures of all the beautiful places!
As kids, we didn't really know what was waiting for us :) We live in a world of boundaries and visas. I didn't know that to realize this dream, the least I need is to be a multi-millionaire. I also didn't know that citizens of many countries of the world are not easily welcome everywhere. People are merely papers, it doesn't matter who you are, your qualifications, your ambitions, you first have to be on paper in order to think of transcending the paper one day, and be just YOU.
It's nice to go back in memory and see our previous dreams. Even though they might look extremely unrealistic, we might end up doing something that's close to them. Not necessarily spending one year in every country and the rest of my kid's imagination, but at least visiting and knowing the world and its people. Learning more languages. That could be possible, I am optimistic still. Even though it took me years just struggling with my "paper self" in the first foreign country I've ever been to, USA, I am still optimistic. My hope doesn't come from how reality is, it's generated from within myself, from where I know a value in me that's above and beyond human-created boundaries and obstacles. We can do it!
Sunday, November 11, 2007
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4 comments:
Aww baby thats beautiful, that really is a very nice post. You never told me this memory before. I would be nice to visit every country, and sadly you are right, we are nothing but passports and visas, it really is sad. Who knows maybe we will be millionaires soon and we can travel the world.
Yes dear, it might just happen. Hope is from God, pessimism is evil!
This is a very lovely post, it really made a nice end to my busy day to think about what you say. Dostoyevsky said that a single act of kindness toward a young person could one day save that person from despair. Just another thought - perhaps not as good as yours!
barry
great to see your comment :)
your thought, borrowed from Dostoyevsky, is as profound and true as it is simple. I think it holds true both for young and old persons, but acts of kindness can be more profound for young persons, because many things are shaped in us when we are young!
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