The Cost of Following Your Dreams

Growing up, most of our lives are are told to “follow our dreams”. We’ve grown up watching Disney movie where characters chase and achieve their dreams, living happily ever after. People think they will finally be happy when they achieve their dream. All they do is focus on getting there that sometimes they get lost and lose sight of what is really important, maybe they end up cutting ties with important people in their life as well, or just miss out on other opportunities that would make them happy too. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as I’ve been trying to figure out what my dreams are and how to achieve them. Three examples of this have been on my mind as I've thought about dreams and the price we might pay to follow them: The Broadway musical “Wicked” (2003), the musical movie “La La Land” (2016), and the new movie "Bohemian Rhapsody" (2018). These examples have made me contemplate whether following our dreams is really worth it or not.

If you don’t know the story of “Wicked” it is a story about the two witches from “The Wizard of Oz”: Elphaba the Wicked Witch, played by Idina Menzel, and Glinda the Good Witch, played by Kristin Chenoweth. They were roommates at school who originally hated each other but then became friends. There’s a song in the musical called “Thank Goodness” where the lyrics talk about how it feels to achieve your dream. When this particular song comes on, Glinda has just accepted the job of the Good With because Elphaba turned it down, which caused them to part ways. It’s an extremely underrated song. There’s a part in the song where Glinda sings:

 “I couldn’t be happier/Though it is, I admit/The tiniest bit/Unlike I anticipated/But I couldn’t be happier/Simply coudn’t be happier/Well-not simply:/Cause getting your dreams/It’s strange, but it seems/A little-well-complicated/There’s a kind of a sort of cost/There’s a couple of things get lost/There are bridges you cross/You didn’t know you crossed/Until you’ve crossed/And if that joy, that thrill/Doesn’t thrill you like you think it will/Still-/With this perfect finale/The cheers and the ballyhoo/Who?/Wouldn’t be happier?/So I couldn’t be happier/Because happy is what happens/When
all your dreams come true/Well, isn’t it?/Happy is what happens/When all your dreams come true!”

Glinda is trying to convince herself that becoming the Good Witch was worth losing her best friend over. Ultimately she got what she wanted, but it still didn’t make her as happy as she thought it would have. She pretty much has to force herself to smile and be happy so that no one will think she isn’t.

A similar thing happens in the movie “La La Land”. Mia, played by Emma Stone, is trying to follow her dream of becoming an actress in Hollywood. Sebastian, played by Ryan Gosling, is trying to
follow his dream of opening a jazz club. The eventually meet, fall in love, then decide to follow their dreams instead of stay together. At the end of the movie, they both achieved their dreams, but what did it cost them? There’s a scene of what their life could have been if they had chosen to stick
together.

They way this scene was filmed implies that their life would have been happier and more passionate than it is without each other except Sebastian would not have the Jazz club he always dreamed of. In the end, they both got what they wanted and seem content, but we are left wondering if they could have been happier if they had stuck together.

Another  good example is “Bohemian Rhapsody”. The band Queen was able to reach their dream of becoming famous. But once the dream was achieved, Freddie Mercury, played by Rami Malek, got lost  on his way to following his dreams and started to cut the wrong people out of his life. He eventually found his way back, but a lot of his life was full of loneliness because he didn’t have the right people to share his dream with. Luckily, he realized his mistake and was able to mend the relationships he had cut off from before it was too late.

So what have we learned from these three examples? Glinda taught me that sometimes our dreams aren't really what will make us happy. Mia and Sebastian taught me that we have multiples paths that lead to different types of happiness, we just have to decide which one we want. Freddie Mercury taught me that we need to find true friendship and love to be truly happy, even once we've achieved our dreams. I realize this post sounds really pessimistic about following your dreams. I don't mean to it be. I really think following our dreams can make us happy, and we should follow what makes us happy. I just think we need to be more careful in following our dreams. We need to evaluate what really will make us happy. We always think we will be happier once we achieve our dream, but why can’t we be happy on the way to achieving the dream? Why do we think it’s not okay to change our dreams if we realize we won't be as happy as we think? Do what makes you happy, but, most importantly, do it with those who help make you happy.

Please leave a comment on any insights or thoughts you have about following our dreams! I would love to hear any comments you have to share.