许吉如 清华大学

Dreams are Pressure to be Polished

‘What’s your dream?’ The other day, our class had a discussion about dreams. And answers varied. Becoming the first woman president of China, hunting for a handsome husband, teaching in Africa, planting lavender at Provence in France, either romantic or glorious.

Suddenly, we heard another voice. ‘I’m afraid that my dream is not like yours’, a boy said, ‘I really really want to graduate without no more accidents, then stay in the city, buying a house and taking my mom here to live with me. And, that’s my dream, I guess.’ The boy, with dark skin and bright eyes comes from Yushu, Tsinghai province, who lost his dad at the age of 7, once dropped out of school due to poverty and lost his home in the earthquate, and whose dream, of graduating, buying a house and becoming a metropolitan resident, sank all of us into silence.

What we see as life pressure is however, a dream, hard yet beautiful, to him.

But how come? How come our pressure being his dream? Life is hard for everyone, and I believe life is even harder for this classmate of mine. We are garanteed with many priviledges ever since we were born, so we take many things for granted, higher education, ideal jobs, decent houses and the like. As for him, entering the university after several dropouts, finding a welI-paid job to set his aged momo free from laborious work, and building up a warm shelter for his mom after so many sufferings, all these are rosy dreams beause he polishes the pressure with passion and gratitude.

Yes, if life pressure is never to be escaped, why don’t we polish them? Examination is intimidating, but if we come to realize that exam is a fair platform to everyone regardless of appearance and family background, we will be motivated to get prepared. Job hunting is exhausting, but if we consider it as the first step we take to achieve our career goal, we will feel proud of every attempt we make. Buying a house sounds mundane and demanding, but if we regard it as ‘providing a shelter for our loved ones’, we will never feel lonely or frustrated. For pressure, we strive with pain; For polished pressure, dream, we strive with joy.

My classmate is thankful because he finally gets the chance to face the pressure and realize his dream, and I’m thankful too, because his dream lights up my mind. When we take something for granted, it becomes a burden; but when we hold gratitude towards it and learn to cherish it, it becomes a chance, or even a dream. Pressure is dream with dust on it and dream is pressure to be polished.