Boy And His Wall Essay, Research Paper

For many people a wall is a place were one can go to escape their fears or the harsh realities of life. It is a place they have created for themselves; a fantasy world. Walls give us hope, dreams, and reality all in one setting. They allow us to believe in ourselves and to push us to make our dreams become reality. I see that there are two kinds of dreams. The dreams we see while we are asleep, and the dreams we see when we are awake. Our dreams while we sleep represent more of a fantasy world, perhaps what we want; our wants and desires. Our dreams when we are awake are the dreams that we have in life and the goals that we set for ourselves and for our future. Is it possible for one to create to much of a fantasy world so it effects the way he or she thinks about reality? This was the first question I ask myself after interviewing my roommate Brian. As I was looking over Brian s wall, I could see that he had a strong passion for becoming a “professional Soccer player”, not just a professional, but “#1″. With all the posters that say number one and all the trophies that say first place, no wonder when he is in his room he believes he is the best. But is it too much. After one finds something he or she likes to do, they will most likely go and do it, whether its sports, work, or relax. Its human nature to go and manifest your goals. To Brian to be #1 in soccer is his goal. For it to actually come true is very slim, but he believes it could happen.As a child growing up in a middle class family; Brian had a lot of advantages over the other kids. He had a lot of the best products out on the market which made him a better player. He had parents that were very supportive and always told him that he could always be what he wanted to be in life. He always had everything and everyone behind him to push him to become a pro soccer star. Was it to much? [To be told you were the best and to have his parents say you can always be anything you want.] I believe it was. If you were to watch Brian play, you would know right away he is not pro material.The first thing I noticed when looking at brain s wall was a poster of Pele, the world s best and most famous soccer player of all time. I asked him what was the reason he has this poster on your wall?. With a simple answer he replied that s going to be me one day. It was certain to me after that reply that he was going to give up nothing to become a pro soccer player. Is that healthy? [To always believe that you are going to be something that is very difficult to become.] I thought what if he didn t become a soccer player what would he do, he already would have detected half his life to soccer. [All because of his wall and his posters upon it.] The other poster on the wall that caught my eye was a Nike poster that said “Just Do It”. When I saw this I realized what that poster was made for, to push people to capture their goals. This was the exact reason he had it up. He said “It makes me feel better about myself and it makes me strive to be a better soccer player. The same went for Valerio in “The Boy and His Wall” Valerio put posters of cars and pictures, that represented who he wanted to be on his wall. ” Interestingly, the spectacle was a montage of posters, articles, artifacts, and mementos, a kind of fragmented discourse whose coherence was not so much built into and across the fragments but resulted more from an act of my own interpretation” (Cintron 108) Just like Valerio; Brain is trying to escape the outside world, and trying to venture of into his fantasy world. They re he can be who he wants to be, a professional soccer player. The dreams and fantasies in our life s do depicted the way we want to be in the future. We do want are dreams to become reality so we can live the lives that we have always wanted; but the dreams can only go so far. Once the dream is over reality starts to take hold. This is were Brain is going to fail. All because of his wall and the posters on it. It was with out question to much.