Pursuing Your Dreams Essay, Research Paper

I have a dream. That quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. rings throughout our lives almost on a daily basis. We all have dreams and many of them become actual goals in our lives. Yet, what do we, as individuals, have to do in order to accomplish these goals? For me, to reach my goal of obtaining my Doctorate degree, I will have to have dedication, perseverance, and patience. These three essential keys for anyone to reach the goals they have set for their lives.

Dedication, by definition, means to devote to a sacred purpose. In our society, it is so easy to become sidetracked from our goals. Our lives change and we feel there are other pressing issues that require our time that that moment. We experience love, children, loss or other elements that take us away from the goals we once had for ourselves. Granted, sometimes things enter our path that delay us, but in order to successfully complete our goals, we must never lose sight of them. Success can only come with the dedication from within. I have experienced the detour from my goal of finishing my education. I married in high school and gave birth to my son shortly after. I tried to pursue my education, but found my time was spread to thin. I then decided to temporarily set my goals aside until my son started school. Had I not completely believed in my goal and myself, nor had the dedication to pursue it, I might have not ever enrolled in college.

Along with dedication comes perseverance. We were never promised a rose garden in life. Everyone experiences joyous times and we all experience rough times. It is up to us to determine how we will handle them. That is when the ability to persevere comes into play. We cannot run every time a bump develops in our path. We have to find the strength to endure the good right along with the bad. The bumps and bruises we face can become quite frustrating, but we will become stronger after conquering them. While experiencing this frustration, it is time to find that last ounce of will we thought was gone. The greatest feeling overcomes us when another pitfall has been defeated. The last year and a half has proven the road to my Doctorate degree will be anything but easy. I have experienced setbacks every semester when I begin to enroll in school. I usually break down and cry for a few hours, then gather my strength and trudge on. To try hard and continuously in spite of obstacles and difficulty is how Webster s defines perseverance. I don t think there is a better way of saying it!

Patience is a virtue. That statement has been said to me all of my life. My mom always tells me we hurry up just to wait. How true! Everything around us moves in an expedient pace. People rarely slow down to appreciate the blessings in our lives. By learning to be patient, we acquire positive, life-long skills. The world will always test our patience, but we hold the cards as to how we will react. According to Webster, patience is the capacity to put up with pain, troubles, difficulties, hardships, etc. without complaint or ill temper. Not many of us have had the thrill of mastering patience. However, patience is a piece of the puzzle we all need in order to complete our goals. Days come when I think I will never finish school. I become disappointed and begin to think of changing my goals. I tell my husband maybe I set an unrealistic goal for my education, and that I am stopping after my Bachelor s degree. I say that only because I am tired of waiting for my day to come. Impatience can destroy our goals, but only if we let it.

Achieving goals we have set for ourselves can be trying to say the least. Days come when we think we will never see

the end of the tunnel. The tunnel can become increasingly darker and we can begin to lose sight of our goals. However, in

order to be a success in life, we have to stay focused. In order to do that, we have to be dedicated to our goal, persevere

during the hard times, and learn to be patient. It is important to set goals and more important to remember, Rome was not built

overnight.