The road less taken...

By chance, I got to ask my neighbor about the course he plans to take in college. Uncomplicatedly, Joseph, 17, a fourth year high school student in one of the prestigious schools in Cebu, answered, “Ay mag Nursing ko oi para dollar inig kahuman.” At his very young age, it seems to me that his plans are 10 years more established than mine. Apart from that, what bothers me most is his course of choice, knowing that he has always wanted to become an architect. He is just one of those young minds who have a fixed dream of going abroad to earn dollars, taking for granted their dreams and aspirations. Sadly, this kind of perspective has gradually ruined the essence of following one’s dream and taking the right road that will truly make you feel content.

I, for one have experienced the same kind of dilemma. Choosing to take up Mass Communication entailed a great deal of risk and utmost determination considering that nurses are paid way too high than journalists. In other words, fulfillment weighs greater than practicality.

Having a sense of fulfillment is imperative in every course of action that you make. Feeling a sense of fulfillment in every endeavor gives you satisfaction. Achieving the feeling of contentment of having realized your desires and aspirations pushes you to endure the long hours of diligence, sacrifice and could sometimes lead you to go through an uncomfortable situation. Thus, settling for mediocrity has no place for those who wish to live their future life with pleasure and content. Each one of us who are alive have the capacity and ability to attain more than what we have been experiencing if we only believe in our capacity to achieve. We experience discontentment and unhappiness when we tend to disregard our power and potential to make things happen by putting in less efforts to realize our dreams.

However, the culture that we young people live today is bound on two things: getting a lot of things done and getting them done fast. Preoccupied with the various demands and pressures brought by this technologically enhanced community, the young people have the tendency to reject their personal and genuine desires and aspirations in conformance to the present pragmatism - thus, abandoning the best possible road. In this sense, it is easier for us to just give up our dream and take on something different. At times, young people would endure the course of accomplishing something that is out of their own capacity for the sake of adherence and conformity to the community’s mainstream. Little do we realize that the things that we give up are the things that we truly desire and are eventually the real things that could give us fulfillment and contentment.  

Young as we are, we should not let our generation succumb into this material world. Consider, that for us to achieve the sense of fulfillment and contentment, we must learn to take the right road intended for him. The road that holds our true interest and inclination, the road that will truly allow us to transcend as a person.   

Because most of the time, the road less taken is the one that truly holds our dreams and aspirations. These are the roads that have led us to the choices that we were taking but were eventually taken for granted due to the rigorous demands of society that we ought to cope with. And this is something that we should consider thoughtfully.