“You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So…get on your way!” -Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go 

The future. It’s a terrifying concept and an unavoidable reality. Conceptualizing what it may hold is incredibly difficult and daunting. There is so much uncertainty, so many possibilities. 

The incertitude that is the future is enough to make anyone want to stay stagnant in the present. It is enough to make us dread what it may hold and avoid change at all costs. Maintaining our current situation is so much easier than subjecting ourselves to the possible disappointments, struggles, and unhappiness that our future may bring. 

But it is the resilience of our goals and dreams that make the prospect of our lives to come less terrifying. Hope is the bright light that lures us out of the security of what we are comfortable with and forces us to face the possibilities of the unknown. 

If we had no aspirations, no ambitions, no desires, we could never grow. We, as individuals, would remain stagnant. And not to mention that the world around us would also remain unchanged. The pursuit of possibly transforming our dreams into our realities is what motivates us to explore the opportunities we are given and harness our limitless potential. 

Allowing the stagnation of maturation is one of the greatest injustices that we can inflict upon ourselves. Suppressing our growth and development is what hinders our ability to build a life worth living.  

Our growth comes from setting goals and working towards achieving them. Without an objective, without something we are working towards, we are lost. Being directionless leaves us in a “most useless place…the waiting place,” as described by Dr. Seuss. In his children’s book, he condemns the actions of the people who wait around for something to happen rather than chasing what they want. Those people will never have the opportunity to “find the bright places” due to their lack of motivation and direction. 

Goals and dreams are what fuel our ventures into the great unknown. Constantly setting our GPS to a new destination is how we can continue on our journeys to greatness. It’s okay to have insatiable ambitions, as that is what drives us to become better people, to make contributions to our world, to find a meaningful reason for continuing on. 

A life worth living is one that is driven by a purpose. By setting our minds on the type of future we wish to enjoy, the goals we wish to achieve, and the passions we wish to pursue, we are able to find personal validation and life fulfillment. 

It would be naive and ignorant for me to claim that each of our individual journeys will not be plagued with hardship and struggle. We will suffer from tragedy and devastation, loss and betrayal. But the single thing that makes these horrible truths endurable, is the potential that we can some day accomplish the goals we have set and realize the dreams we have developed.

Misfortune and pain are unavoidable for any living being. But facing these trials and tribulations are worth it if we never drift away from our aspirations. Setting goals and continuing to sustain our hopes in the face of adversity is what prompts our continued resilience, our inevitable progress, and our eventual triumph.