Great Expectations

Those of you in college are at an age where you are supposed to be idealistic, and it is good to pursue your dreams. I truly hope you realize them.

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him;
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -
And admirably schooled in every grace;
In fine we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

-Edwin Arlington Robinson

I read that in high school and thought it chilling and remarkable. While the outcome is grossly exaggerated for most, put a few miles on and one truly comes to understand that

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."
-Henry David Thoreau

That is amazingly insightful...

I really do hope that your dreams do come true, and by all means pursue those dreams, but understand that great expectations are rarely realized. And how will you react when all is not perfect? Maturity is keeping the highs not so high, and the lows not so low. Your life will rarely "fire on all cylinders," that is, not all aspects will be great simultaneously. There's always some good with the bad, and some bad with the good. And if you cannot be satisfied with that, then one calm summer evening the quiet desperation may become unbearable. So learn early that it's fine to whimper but don't complain, and count your blessings as the world doesn't owe you a thing. Follow your dreams, but at some point be content in the realization that OK is OK.