Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Pipe Dreams

Loads of people have pipe dreams. Here of some of mine from over the years, ones that still sound cool to me but would preclude me for doing many of the other things I want to do, generally for reasons related to time and location.
  • +Run away to Russia and become a ballerina - Some part of me has always wanted to do ballet, but the really good dancers do nothing but ballet, and I was never interested in it enough to give up my myriad other interests. It is still appealing to me, and I would like to take some ballet classes eventually, but running off to Russia and becoming a lifelong ballerina would be impossible if I want the rest of my life to happen. Why Russia? Obviously because they turn out some of the best ballerinas. And it's a pipe dream, so why not?
  • +Go to Tokyo and be a video game designer for Square Enix - I love the Final Fantasy series. Each game is a work of art in itself. For a while, my goal was to become a game designer, or write/draw/program for games, and make artful games like the Final Fantasy stuff. At that time, I'm pretty sure my dream was to actually learn Japanese, head to Japan, and persuade the tough businessmen of Tokyo to let me work for them. Unfortunately, like the Russia thing, this would preclude just about any other ideas I had for my life.
  • +Go to Japan and be a manga-ka - I like writing, I like drawing, I like all kinds of comics, including manga, and I like the idea of Japan. Obviously, moving there and becoming a manga-ka would be a great idea, despite the fact that they probably wouldn't like an American wannabe-Asian (I think "weaboo" is the accepted term) trying to weasel her way into the market in its home country. I could be a manga-ka in America, but I like the idea of living in Japan for a while, which is why it's included in this pipe dream. Again, this one has the international problem, though the hours I worked would likely be much more flexible and allow for other projects. I can still become a manga-ka in America, but that's much less a pipe dream than actually moving to Japan to do it.
  • +Attend MIT and generally be a smart, MIT-attending person - When I applied for colleges towards the end of high school, I knew that an out-of-state school was probably out of the question, if only for monetary reasons. I also knew that I hadn't really done anything to make me stand out when I was in high school, and so I would probably be rejected from MIT. Now that I'm a junior in college, my only viable option for completing this pipe dream would be to make some money or get a scholarship and somehow get MIT to accept me for grad school. This is actually the least impossible of my pipe dreams, since it could still happen, is not totally insane, and likely would not preclude me from living a life of myriad interests, since I would probably only be there for a few years.
  • +Join/start a band and become famous through it - This would be a lot more possible if I practiced my bass guitar more often. I could still join a band, and in fact I hope to eventually, but I don't think I have any designs on fame as a musician anymore. It would just be a fun thing to do for a while.
  • +Work for Google - Do I even need to explain this one?
Of course, only God knows where life will go.

-

No comments: