We are already being told that it's foolish to want most things, foolish to strive for anything extraordinary, by the time that most people hit the double digits. When you're little, everyone wants to agree with you and say that of course you'll be an astronaut, an actor, a scientist, but after a couple years go by, everyone starts expecting you to be more realistic and just laughs. I remember being eight years old and being obsessed with making things out of clay, a skill my mother took it upon herself to assure me could win me a scholarship; years later, when I mentioned it in passing, she looked at me like I was insane. "You were eight, and college was ten years away," she said. "I only told you that because you were little and I knew you'd grow out of it and become more realistic by the time it became time for you to go to college." And yet, here I am, almost nineteen years old and studying how to be a writer anyway. Being realistic is important and what ensures your survival, but there's lots to be said for purported foolishness. If everybody listened when their dreams were shut down, then the world would be exactly the same as it was thousands of years ago.

Ellisa Goldberg