Saturday, September 21, 2013

My Chocolate Factory Dream

When I was in 5th grade (fancy way to say darjah 5 kan!) we were asked to write a karangan bahasa melayu entitled "Jika saya seorang jutawan". Being such a chocolate lover, I wrote, "Jika saya seorang jutawan, saya akan membina sebuah kilang coklat.

Of course the karangan goes on and on about wanting to help the needy., but the only thing that I could think of - wow... my own chocolate factory? sweet...! I can eat all I want, I don't have to put aside my pocket money and wait until Friday to buy that chocolate bar I love so much. Life was easy those days. Today, if I were to eat a piece of cake or a bar of chocolate, my brain would go on autopilot thinking how much calories is that, and how much I will have to work out to burn those calories.

Life was a lot happier those days. When failing only means to try again until you get what you want. What happened along the way that we fear failing so much we stopped going after our dreams. Even worse, there are dreams we suppressed so deep we even forgot what we dreamed about as a kids. I've wanted to be a secret agent, the prime minister, a sharp shooter, an author, to have my own talk show and etc.. etc.. etc..

When I was in high school, every Friday I will look forward to read this column on NST written by young writers. I wanted to be featured in those column too. I have totally forgot about this dream. I wonder what was I so afraid of that I stopped trying? I wanted to be a good public speaker, but I stopped working on that too. The same thing happens to all the dreams I've had. The only dream I'm still working on is my dream of being a doctor - and I'm still not doing my best for that either. So what really went wrong, I wonder. Until I watch this inspiring speech on youtube today, that it's never too late, and that it was our fear of failure that keeps us away from our dreams.

So, what's next? It hit me yesterday as I was flipping through the book I'm currently reading by Regina Brett, God Never Blinks - that all I have to do is to do the next right thing to do.

If I want to write a book, start with a paragraph.
If I want to be a good public speaker, start preparing a good speech.
If I want to open a chocolate factory or a kiosk even, okay actually I don't want this anymore.

Here I am 24 years old, gathering every pieces of dreams I have had, and sorting them out, of which one I would like to work on first, and doing the next right thing I should do. How about you? What are your dreams? Are you still working on them? Are you stuck just like me? Remember, when in doubt, do the next right thing to do. :-)

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