A dream is a wish your heart makes...

With the Olympics going on, you see all these athletes who have trained so hard to get to where they are.  Part intense training, part natural talent, and part being able to be in the right place at the right time and meeting the right people.  Certainly blessed.

A major hindrance in attaining such dreams in Canada?  The typical Asian life:  you work hard in school to get good grades so you can get into a good university where you can either study to be a lawyer, doctor, accountant, or a teacher.  I know I fall under that category.  And even now, I see parents pushing their kids to take physics and biology and chemistry and anything that doesn't fall under those academic courses are considered useless for their future.  Well, nothing could be farther from the truth.  Oftentimes, Asian parents pigeon-hole their kids into very specific careers that are limited to only a small population. The moment they don't do well in these subjects, tutors are hired, pressuring these kids to cram into their minds what is naturally difficult for them, while the skills they may have remain hidden and unseen.  Kids start to think "I'm stupid."  Well, do these kids have any dreams of their own?  Do they know what their passion is?  When they're in class, are they motivated to learn or just motivated by marks?  Are their careers and futures their own decisions or their parents?  Would they ever learn to make their own life decisions?  Hmmm...that's a thinker.

On a different note,  I was also thinking, wouldn't it be great if we can take a baby and through analysis of their brains and body, we can determine what their are naturally built for?  Such as a body that is ideal to learn dance, or a mind that is ideal to learn math.  Wouldn't it be great if everyone was able to start from what their good at rather than so much trial and error?  Some people may never realize their skills because they've just never been given the opportunity to use them and hone them.  Isn't it a waste?  Jay brought up a good point - it wouldn't be much fun if everyone was good at everything.  There would be to proteges because everyone would be one.  I do agree with that on many levels.  I suppose that just came from my own regrets on not being able to follow my own dreams.

I wanted to learn wushu, my parents put me in piano because it was more feminine.  When given the opportunity to learn wushu in a secondary school extracurricular club, I took it.  But eventually the class size dropped and I was the few people left, then class disappeared all together.  Oh well, kicking-butt-super-woman dream was gone.

I wanted to be a fashion designer, my parents wanted me to go into university because fashion design was not 'practical' and there would be 'no jobs' for me.  So, I go through my relatively mundane university life while watching others around me living the dreams that I originally wanted.  I remembered ever since I was in elementary school, I created my own fashion booklets and designed dresses.  I adored beautiful clothing and I would copy what I saw.  Come to think of it, how many kids already knew what they wanted to be at that age?  Even with my small amount of training, I was told by my textiles sponsor teacher that I had the best skills of any other student teacher she's had, and that I would go far if my skills were more developed.  This coming from an extremely skilled lady with extremely high expectations, who have seen and brought up many talented designers.  Receiving a compliment from someone I admired so much, I was happy at that moment but my heart also dropped.  I had that passion and the skill and I let it slip away because of my pigeon-holed lifestyle.  Unfortunately, I would not be able to drop all my responsibilities right now to pursue that dream. 

Am I totally hating my life right now?  No.  Am I blessed?  Yes.  Would I be who I am right now without having lived through my 'mundane' life?  Nope.  Do I dislike my parents for not supporting my dreams?  Definitely not.  I understand that they come from a much more underprivileged background and came here so that I could live a better life.  And in their eyes, it means getting a university education and a safe, steady job.

In general, each person has a path and I don't know how things would have turned out if I had followed my dreams, but that's not important anymore.  I am happy with the many blessings that I have been given.  The take-home message that I learned from these experiences is what I can do with it.   To all the students I'm teaching and eventually when I have a children,  I want to be a person who is supportive of their dreams.  I want to be able to pick up on what they love and point that out to them.  I want to be the one to open their eyes to the hundreds of careers out there that would utilize what they CAN do and not force them to fit a mold of what others feel is acceptable.  Parents should hire tutors to help kids get further ahead on what they love, rather than hiring a tutor to push them into studying more of what they hate.  God has given each person talents/gifts, so use them for His glory!  The kids will be happier and the world would benefit from their skills.

Food for thought.