THIS IS US
In That Sleep of Youth What Dreams May Die
Florida fell and I did nothing to stop it
I asked my English 101 class the other day, “If a billionaire supported you for the rest of your life, what career would you choose? Also, if you don’t choose a career, this support disappears.”
ME: In other words, if money wasn’t in the way, what would you do?
STUDENTS: Excellent question, professor. You are wise and help us see the truth within ourselves. We would pursue our dreams.
After they admitted this, and tearfully, they would change their majors, stopping this communication, business, engineering, computer-science nonsense immediately.
By the might of my question, the classroom would transform from a cell of suffocating passion into an arena of professional dreamcatchers.
Though I already knew how they would answer, still I asked my question:
“If you had a billionaire’s support, what career would you pick? In other words, you never have to worry about money again. So, what would you do?”
A student who is going into real estate said, “I’d go into real estate.”
I paused, not for effect, but for surprise and anger.
“That’s your passion?” I said. “Real estate is your soul’s undying dream?”
“Yes.”
Another student said, “I’d get into local government.”
To this, I said, “But you’re already getting into local government. You tell us every class.”
“So?”
I showed my hand: “But this question was meant to flush your precious dreams out into the open.”
They all assured me their precious dreams were already in the open. There, in the English 101 classroom, my young accountants, auditors, and actuaries wanted me to believe they were seizing the day, hard.
But I knew better.
So, like a good teacher, to demonstrate how dreaming works, I taught them by example:
