Dreams: The Unrealized Reality

All of us have hopes and dreams. What one does with those hopes and dreams, separates them from every other person on the planet. It is a shame to just let them dissipate without acting upon them. But first, one needs to distinguish between what is a dream and what is an unrealized reality. Ever since childhood, there have been many goals, hopes, aspirations, and dreams for my future. Hopes are a part of everyday life. For the longest time, I thought that hopes were just childhood dreams that I would eventually grow out of as the years went on. I could just sit for time on end and ponder over my future. When asked as a kid, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" most children have generic answers of "A fireman/policeman!" or "a movie star/athlete". When I was asked that same question, I surprised adults with my answer of "a chef." Most kids think they will graduate high school and POOF! Their dreams come true. They don't realize that they must work for it. Majority don't even follow the path they originally "hoped" for.As I grew and went through the years as a teenager, I didn't think much about HOW I would become this renowned chef I had talked about. The dictionary states that hope is a wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment. This discovery pushed me just one notch further to become what I had always told friends and family.The silly childhood dream was no longer just a hope. It had now morphed itself into an aspiration. I no longer wanted to be the "world-renowned chef" anymore. I wanted to learn all I could in this field of work; a jack-of-all-trades per say. The time of my life right now is crucial because now is the time to plan a way to achieve this aspiration.Goals must be made and must be kept. A goal is the purpose toward which an endeavor is directed. My first and foremost goal is to always put family first and carry them through life as best I can along with myself. It must always be remembered that anything worth having or receiving is worth working for. This leads to the next few goals in my life. I hope to get through college smoothly and achieve my degree in Culinary Arts. After Butler, I plan on transferring to a bigger culinary program to complete my other two years. Once I am officially out in the real world, I will find myself working for a chef and eventually moving up the totem pole. After a few years of the stressful job