Future Dreams
Now I’m asking my students what their dreams are. They say: a nurse, a police officer, a dress maker, and so on. And they have big difficulties, you know, their grades.
When I was an elementary school student, I wanted to be a teacher at a kindergarten. When I was a junior high school student, I had no dreams. When I was a high school student, I thought I would never be a teacher. Teacher was the last profession I would have chosen. However, I am a teacher at a high school now.
Dreams change. Choosing occupations is very interesting and very difficult.
Comments
Ummm, I vaguely understand what the quote means but not clearly. Could you tell me the meaning?
As for a quotation, one of my favorites is:
Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger men.
It is from J.F. Kennedy, I suppose.
The older I become, the harder it becomes for me to have dreams. That’s because I came to know many things in the world and I can’t help but think seriously about my future. Is it really a suitable job for me? Do I have enough ability to do the job? Can I get enough money to live on? Pondering over these questions is important, of course, but sometimes I get tired of thinking about them.
Ayumi Sawa :: October 16, 2003
When I was an elementary school student, I wanted to become an owner of an ice cream shop. The reason is that I wanted to eat ice cream every day and to make many kinds of sweets. When I went to junior high school, I wanted to be an English teacher and teach soft tennis to members of the club. At this time, the most important aim is to teach soft tennis.
Now, I have not decided on my dream yet. After I did the practice teaching, I found that it is difficult to play tennis with students every day. My dream is playing and teaching it, but I can do that if I am not a teacher.
Having a dream is wonderful, because people can do anything and try to make dreams come true.
graham :: October 16, 2003
Just a quick note. I never really had a dream in the way of a profession, I always had a vision of what type of life I would like to have. As far as quotes go, I’ll try to quote the late Douglas Adams: I may not have got where I intended to go, but I got to where I needed to be.
That one reminds me of a documentary the BBC once did on Adams. They wanted to shoot an interview in an Oxford college library but didn’t get permission, so they ended up doing the interview over a pint of ale at a local pub: not, maybe, where they intended to go, but where they needed to be.
A jewish friend of mine liked to quote “be careful what you wish for; you might as well get it.” He either caught that from his mom or from his Rabbi dad, I don’t remember. Either way, it’s a comment on the folly of human wishing.
I’m less sure what “you might end up where you’re headed” means. The best I can come up with is the old distinction between reason and passion: human behaviour is driven by animal passions and tends towards evil (“where you’re headed”) unless it is governed by sober, rational thought (“be careful”).
That, or it’s a fairly direct way of telling somebody that they’re headed the wrong way.
Hey Kev, where you going with that gun in your hand?
kevin :: October 17, 2003
It means that if you’re not careful, you might get so intent on doing something you have decided you want to do, that you don’t notice the other opportunities and paths that could be even greater. Same as what Graham’s Douglas Adams quote is saying I think. In fact, I like his better now, so I’m going to make it my new favorite quote.
I have always tried to live based on the life-rule I made back in High-school. If I have a choice to make, I should always pick the scariest path. As i grow older, it becomes harder to do this because of the big bad “R” word (responsibility), and I have just spent over a year too afraid to take the scary road, but now that I finally have, I have no idea what the future holds, and I am much happier.
I also agree with Graham about choosing a lifestyle rather than a career. I often talk about this with my girlfriend. Neither of us enjoy Tokyo, and I am ready to move out, but she has to be here for her career now. I used to understand that more, but now I’m thinking it’s best to build a lifestyle you like, and then try to find a way to support that with the work you do.
I do understand your way of thinking: choosing a lifestyle rather than a career. However, it is really difficult for me to follow this idea. I think working or having a career is one of the most important things in my life, and I think I have to keep my life by earning constantly. That’s a life I have been taught by my family and maybe by Japanese culture.
Many Japanese people stick to jobs which they don’t want. We Japanese tend not to think “que-sera-sera” or “we can manage to do” as for earning.
Now I love teaching very much and am satisfied with my career, so I won’t give it up. However, when I get older and have less time left, I may do what I really want to do with money saved :-D
Tomoko Niwa :: October 17, 2003
Hi, everyone in Mie UV! Do you remember me? I have not seen you for such a long time. I graduated from Mie UV this spring.
Others, glad to meet you. Now I am a high school teacher in Kuwana, Mie.
I just want to say “Hi” to everyone here and add my opinion to the many comments on dreams (work)…
When I was a student, I wanted to get a job I had been yearning for. Honestly speaking, I respected the people who got the job they wanted and maybe I despised the others who could not get a job they wanted. In my mind, the former were winners and the latter were losers.
But I went out into the world and now I work late at night every day. It is much harder than I expected. So I’ve come to think any job is hard to continue even if it is what you wanted to get. So Ive changed my mind. I’ve come to respect all people who continue doing their work for a long time. The longer it is, the more I respect them. Of course, my respectful heart relates to all kinds of work.
Do you follow what I want to say?
Simona :: October 17, 2003
Yes, I’m agree with you! My dream when I was child (and a bit also now) was to become a writer. I love to write and when I was child I wrote everywhere!!! Then, in 3th class of highschool (I was 16-17 y.o.), I knew that I wanted to become a teacher for children. But, when I started my university and started my voluntary service in a place where there were teenagers who had some family and social problems, I decided I’d like to be a Professional Educator to help them.
By the way, here in Italy, we often laugh because we say that children want only to become fireman!! Well, but it was long time ago, now I don’t know. Girls want to become showgirls! It seems the main aspiration! But, of course, not all people!
Simona :: October 17, 2003
By the way, I can understand what Tomoko said. I agree with her.
kevin :: October 17, 2003
Wakako says
choosing a lifestyle rather than a career. However, it is really difficult for me to follow this idea. I think working or having a career is one of the most important things in my life…
…Now I love teaching very much and am satisfied with my career, so I won’t give it up. However, when I get older and have less time left, I may do what I really want to do with money saved
I think if you love teaching, and you love the other aspects of you life, that’s great (of course you can’t love everything all the time, but on average). If you can save money for you future by doing it, that’s even better. I say then that you are living a life you like and you will never be unhappy.
What I wanted to say before, was don’t live a life you don’t like because your career requires it. Figure out what life you like, and then find a career you love that fits well with that life. There are many choices for a career, and, though I don’t know you, I’m sure you can be happy in many different careers. I doubt that there is only one “perfect” career for you.
Many people though, continue with a job they don’t like, thinking “I’m saving the money to do what I do like later. Unfortunately for many people, they get trapped by their lifestyle. People try to make up for unhappiness by buying more things (maybe to justify the job they don’t like, or long hours?) Pretty soon, even when they save what they had planned to five or ten years earlier, now it still doesn’t seem like enough because they “need” more now. They are stuck in their job because their lifestyle has trapped them.
Tomoko talks about respecting people who work long hours. I used to feel that way too, and look at people like that and think it was something to aspire to. Now I feel no respect for someone “sacrificing” when they don’t need to, just do it because they can’t control and balance their own life, or because they want to make more money for more junk (which to me shows that they can’t control themselves). I do have tremendous respect for people who work hard at 2 or 3 jobs because it is needed to support their family because they are not doing it out of greed or need for people to look at them and “admire” how hard they work.
Simona :: October 17, 2003
Hi Rudolf and hi everybody! By the way, what I respect more is those who for job can help many people but also not for job but for humanity. For example, I always think of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and think I’d like to be 1/5 of her, and help those who need something. But I think it’s also very difficult. Ehm, I hope you can understand my bad English!!!
We need thinking about our own lives including our jobs, hobbies, families, and so on. Some think that earning much is the greatest thing in their lives. Others their hobbies. So, it seems to me that reasons why we are doing this or that must be important.
Tomoko Niwa :: October 20, 2003
Yes, we need to make our own lives, including everything around us. Sometimes we have to decide what is more important than other things…
I want to keep doing my work, teaching students at school. But I also want to make much of my family in the future after I get married. So I hope to be a part-time teacher of English, not full-time, and come home to my family as early as possible! I’ll need much money to bring up my children, so I’ll keep on working. Of course, I like doing my job now without thinking of money. However, it is so difficult that I can’t say which is important in my life, work or family… in the future.
Do you think that I make lightly of work?
pketh :: October 21, 2003
I feel the same way as you Tomoko, I haven’t started working yet and I don’t know what I’ll end up doing even now. But I think that balance is definetely a good thing; one may be lucky enough to love their job, but there are still other things in life that can define you as a person.
In the future I may be the same.. taking lightly of work and enjoying life as much as possible. Although contemplating a family is something I can’t even thing about now! :)
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One of my favorite quotes, and I don’t know where it is from…