As suds float off the campus fountain, I wonder to myself how useful the editorial attacking such frivolous pranks was. Call me a narcissist, but I’ve always dreamed of a life beyond writing infrequently read columns. For better or worse, I am a product of Generation ME. I still tell myself I could be the Fireman-Astronaut-Teacher that my childhood dreams promised me.This Christmas break, I worked a two-week stint at my old warehouse, again. Towards the end of my duration there, I picked up a book called, The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, which came highly recommended. The novel about fulfilling Personal Legends left me very conflicted. After finishing the novel and preparing to leave for college, I said my goodbyes to the co-workers I became friends with. Men in their 40s and 50s who kept telling me, “get an education and don’t turn out like us.” It reminded me of the snow-globe I lived in during High School. I just knew all my theatre friends would go on to Broadway or Hollywood, my speech friends would go from winning debates to winning elections and my HOSA friends would soon be curing cancer. When I got to college, it became obvious how few of these dreams would be fulfilled. How few of my friends would become legendary.Call me a pessimist, but statistics can be crippling. Of my friends who get married, half will probably get divorced. Imagine shaving your MySpace or Facebook friend’s list in two. Those that wish to break into the top percentiles of income earning through art, business or medicine, their chances for failure are even greater. But I’m a Bachelor of Arts, so statistics are abstractions to me. All I know, is that if people avoid marriage for fear of divorce, that other half won’t have the chance to enjoy a successful and fulfilling marriage. If we all stop pursuing our dreams for fear of failure, that top percentile will soon become none. And if I stop writing, what will there be to not read.Not everyone is meant to be the next Newton, Whitman or Olivier, but that shouldn’t discourage us from striving to achieve our own Personal Legend. Or trying to keep suds out of the damn fountain.
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