Dreams

Literally everyone I know talks shit about Charles Dickens Great Expectations. I'm always a little disgusted when they do so, but they have fairly good reason. Apparently during freshman year, they had to read and analyze it under the direction of a fairly stringent teacher. Lucky for me I missed that. I love reading and writing, but I find in-depth analysis (especially at public school) quite tedious and boring. I read the classic on my own time, and freaking love it!

For those of you who don't know, it's basically about a boy named Pip who despite his humble origins strives towards success (hence "Great Expectations"). He struggles with finding work and becoming educated, he struggles with shocks (for instance the revelation of his rich benefactor), and (most prominently) he struggles to attain the unattainable Estella Havisham- that heart-wrenching archetype that each and every one of us has had our hearts broken by at one time or another. The novel follows Pip into manhood and reveals to the reader just how easily great expectations can be shattered. It's incredibly sobering and almost depressing. However, it isn't really a tragedy. It maintains its momentum all the way to the bitter end which almost reinforces the wise old saying that life goes on. Reading Great Expectations really encouraged me to put my dreams into perspective.

I'm not saying that we should ignore or even defer our dreams. Despite the low probability of them coming true, they are what gets us up in the morning. I recently saw the movie The Spectacular Now- it was fucking great, you should all see it.

In the film, Shailene Woodley's character emotionally states, "I think it's good to have dreams." I think that about sums it up. Because though there's wisdom in putting dreams into perspective, just because shit didn't work out for Pip doesn't mean that it can't for us. We can still get the job, the girl, the life. And even if we don't we still have dreams to keep us going.