dreams

Lorna was talking with Summy, my roomie, and I about a conversation she had with some of the people on our floor about their career aspirations. One girl wanted to be a flight attendant, one guy is training to be a nurse, another is on his way to grad school at Harvard, another girl is studying to be a speech therapist. But this led to Summy explaining to us that the Chinese people, or at least the people in Hong Kong, are not really supposed to or are not accustomed to have high hopes or dreams when it comes to their future occupations or even lifestyles. Now, I often think that being an artist for a living is very difficult to do in America but Summy said that even wanting to be an architect here would be considered an impractical goal. It is all about practicality and doing something realistic. I am glad I haven’t really told that many people about my major because I am sure they would either be confused or think it absurd. But I wanted to write about this because it just struck me as so counter-intuitive to the Chinese nature that I am starting to become familiar with, one of giddy childishness and pure glee. I know this is an oversimplification and that there also exists a rather serious and focused nature to the Chinese as well but I am consistently taken aback by the innocently blissful demeanor that many of my peers emit and think it is sad that they are reared not to have dreams.