王竹青 福建师范大学
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Imagine being asked to plan your ideal life in five or so years when you can handle living on your own. How would you respond? The picture that forms in my mind is reading in the afternoon sunlight in my own apartment with a coffee machine brewing excellent coffee or imbibing Oolong tea slowly in small sips to appreciate the subtle allure of tea-drinking. Surely it is dreamed by millions of the younger generation who haven’t experienced the bitterness of the realistic adult world. It is high time that we face the question of whether to dream, or to survive. From my perspective, the two are not mutually exclusive. Instead, it is best to strive while still dreaming, but to keep our dreams realistic.
To understand the meaning of this is a sign of maturity. In this case, dreams should be based on our capability and competence. If one feels humiliated and pushed down day in and day out, he will not be such a fan for dream realization. For instance, if Susan Boyle had never been gifted with the talent for singing, she would not have blown away a hall of audience as well as three captious judges. Anyway, it would be too detrimental and disastrous of a person who has set intangible objectives, and fails to accomplish them. He or she will live rest of his or her life in pessimism. The right thing to do is to assess ourselves, and make a strategic plan in order to achieve what we wish for. Otherwise, we are biting off more than we can chew.
It doesn’t have to mean that we bow to reality and let all our bewildered imagination abandon dreams forever. We are supposed to dream big, even providing with the circumstances of financial crisis, terroristic attacks, or even disastrous tsunamis. It is by all means that we, the surviving generation, should be aware of the hardships of adulthood and learn to struggle our way in spite of difficulties. The frustrations and obstacles lie not only in finding a proper job in the near future, but in how we manage to pursue the goals of self-satisfaction. This year’s NPC has underlined the importance of subjective well-being, when statistics have all shown that in fact the present generation appears to lack a proper psychological attitude towards life.
Life is surely shaped by the challenges of a cruel and indifferent society, which leaves no time for us to breathe. The more time that is wasted on illusions, the less time that will be spent on serious undertakings. So why do we still loiter within our unreliable dreams? Why don’t we pick up our courage and determinations and endeavor to gain the upper hand with a careful self-evaluation? My fellow friends, let’s embrace the difficulties and strive hand in hand with our dreams!
