黄瑞瑾 复旦大学
Ladies and gentlemen, what’s the secret of the success of Da Vinci, the father of “Mona Lisa”? The countless eggs that he drew when he was a beginner? I recently found out that Da Vinci, by studying human sleeping patterns, discovered a way to sleep fifteen minutes every four hours to improve his working efficiency. He devoted all the time saved to his painting dream. This is an illustration of how the power of dream can turn lazy bones to an early bird. In my case, I squeeze time for my translator dream before chemistry classes. It’s not tiring at all. The wonderful feeling of pursuing dreams almost lifts me from the ground.
But no, someone pulls me back to earth. “Don’t daydream, young lady,” Mr. Pressure says, “The real world is cruel. Dreams alone won’t feed you!” For those of us whose dreams happen to guarantee a well-paying job, they could keep floating in the mid-air with their dreams. But for those of us whose dreams are very unlikely to bring a fancy car or a spacious house, what can we do? Should we compromise to the world, get a decent job and keep our dream as a hobby? Or should we ignore Mr. Pressure and follow our passion, our dream?
“Choose the real world!” those who care about us urge. They want a comfortable life for us. But “choose your dream!” says J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, who has never given up the only thing she ever wanted to do – to write novels, even in her darkest days. “Choose your dream!” says Han Han, the young Chinese writer. He nurtures his dream as a puppy dog and never forces it to please the critics. Now I say, loudly and confidently, go for my dream. I know that it’s harder to find a job as a translator. I know I’ll have to strive harder as a non-English major. But I also know that to yield to pressure in life is to survive, but to follow my dream is truly to live.
“It’s not as easy as you think.” Mr. Pressure says impatiently, “The pressure and failure can change a person.” Of course they do. But I believe that everything we do in our lives is like a dot. As Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Computer, said, you can’t connect the dots of your life looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust they will somehow connect in your future.” Yes, I do have faith. Even when I dream and strive till I’m old and grey and full of sleep, the dots never form a single line, I’ll never regret because I’ll still have a perfect abstract painting that even Da Vinci couldn’t possibly produce. The masterpiece of my life.
