Opinion: Make Your Dreams YOURS

Villardy Alce

Written by Villardy Alce/Edited by Darren Joseph

As an enrollment counselor, when I speak with high school students I always ask them the same question. What is your dream? Based on their response I inform them on how Southwestern Adventist University can help them reach that dream. Over time, I realized that asking students about their dreams wasn’t enough.

I started asking another question. If you woke up tomorrow with all your needs taken care of and no real reason to work, what’s the one thing you would do for free? I noticed that eight times out of ten, a student’s dream job didn’t match that answer. I discovered that most students struggle with the same thing. Either they don’t know their true passion or they aren’t trying to pursue it.

To those students I ask, “How you can be happy doing something you’re not even remotely passionate about?” Many of them express a fear of not being able to reach their goals. I tell them not to be afraid of failure.

When I failed out of SWAU’s nursing program, I remember being ashamed to tell my mother that I wasn’t able to follow in her footsteps. To this she replied, “My baby is a man now.” I told her that “I’ve been a man!” Her next words will stick with me forever, “You did not have the confidence, the courage, or the backbone to stand up for your own dreams so we gave you ours.”

My advice to those struggling with their purpose is to figure out what makes you have a passion for and makes you happy. Stop saying yes to things that aren’t in line with your purpose and always choose to be amazing. Because that my friend, is what you were made to be. The world needs your amazing. You were born to spread the Glory of God.

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