Triumphantly Joyful

By : Sherrlyn Anne Jim Arcabal Melgar

Every person as a child has dreamt of being someone when one grows up. In kindergarten, it is a common part of everyone’s experience to share what he wants to be when he grows up in class. Though a child is only his kindergarten years, a child already has a dream like being a superhero, spy, pink ninja ranger, member of the Jedi Order, pretty guardian like Sailor Moon, Disney princess, insect, animal, performer like Britney Spears, garbage man, plumber, doctor, teacher, police officer, and even of becoming the President of the Republic of the Philippines. Whether or not a child’s dream is ridiculously trivial or frivolous, it is still meaningful.  To a child, it is something that can make him triumphantly joyful. These dreams bring joy just by giving a child an experience of visualizing these dreams come true in his life.

A child’s dream may be shaped by the media, or his environment, family, friends, what his parents told him to be or anything that can influence him. As a child grows up, there is a huge likelihood that everything will change. Maybe the child who wanted to be a Jedi, now wants to be a lawyer or maybe the child who wanted to be a garbage man now wants to be an accountant. Growing up, changes everything – people become more mature and be able to reach the advanced stage of mental or emotional development characteristic of an adult. The manner of how they talk, move, feel, think will be different; everything will be different as well as the path they want to walk through in attaining dreams and aspirations in life. 

In walking through life with its various challenges to attaining one’s dreams and aspirations in life, what are the things that keep people motivated? How do people shape their dreams and aspirations?

Nowadays, people tend to dream on being “successful”. By “successful”  means having a high position in a company, earning a huge amount of salary, owning a big house, owning cars, and other expensive things. In short, being a four letter word that starts with the letter R and ends with a letter H – rash. A rash person is one who has a tendency of displaying or proceeding from a lack of careful consideration of the possible consequences of an action. People become careless of what they really want to do in life because they opt to want to live comfortably. Comfortable living is equivalent to having a high-ranking position, numerous assets, property, and resources owned.

Wanting to have those are not in point of fact wrong, but a life being led by those are wrong. Same as wanting to become a lawyer because they think that being a lawyer will make them a high-earning and high-ranking human being in the society rather than possessing a genuine desire to become an advocate of justice, having a deep endearment about laws and its application, and wanting to give assistance to the accused or to the victim through unfurling legal knowledge. People are now careless of what really matters in life – being triumphantly joyful.

It is funny how a child knows more about being triumphantly joyful than adults. To picture out, a child wants to become a superhero to save lives while an adult wants to be a doctor to earn a huge amount of money. The non-fictional essence is all gone, because dreams are now driven by price.

So what if a certain individual is not in a high-ranking position in the society? It would not make anyone less of a person.

So what if someone’s annual income is amounting to several millions of pesos? It would not make someone more of a person.

But then again those are not point in fact, wrong. It is just depressing that people’s dreams are now driven more by social status, comfortable living, prestige, and money  when all that matters is that making oneself joyful in what they do. Dreams must be moulded by genuine desires. As a Chinese proverb say, “Choose a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life.”

A job that a person must love does not have to hold a prestigious title or a pay check with a high income; it has to hold love. Yes, love cannot feed a hungry stomach, cannot afford education, and cannot pay a nice shelter and clothing. But the point is, if a person has a dream let it be driven by love then someday somehow that person will be triumphantly joyful in life.