Following One’s Dream Often Entails Risk

Whenever possible, I like to take the train as opposed to renting a car. It’s normally less expensive, it’s more sustainable, and affords me the opportunity to read, write, and talk to people.

On the train from Hartford to Philadelphia yesterday, I sat next to a young man studying operatic performance at the Westminster Choir College in New Jersey, one of the world’s great schools for this specialty. He admits that the career opportunities are few, but it’s his dream, and he’s determined to live it.

This brings up the age-old question of what direction young people should take. Of course, most people don’t have too great an option; only a few have the privilege of aspiring to a non-practical life’s work.

Looking back through history, we are quite fortunate that some people took chances. For example, some became composers of music, even if they were unappreciated in their time (e.g., Mozart). And think of how many disciplines are changed forever, simply because a certain child wasn‘t pushed into brick-laying or accounting. If no one had taken a chance with their career in the sciences, we’d still believe that the Earth was the center of the universe, and that bloodletting was the best treatment for disease.

All I could tell my young friend is that he’s been given an uncommon opportunity — one that he should appreciate  as the rare gift it is.