What is a dream?

It is the purpose of every person's learning.

It is what we long to have.

It is our own passions.

It is the true source of life's motivation, the seed and the key of every success. And why do we need to have dreams? Is it because dreams cost nothing, so why should we be sparing with them? Is it because everything begins with a dream? All of that is true, but above all it is because we know: without a dream we have nothing.

  In every person's life, whether great or small, whether few or many, all of us have good dreams for ourselves and for others. I am the same: my life is a series of dreams following one after another, weaving together and overlapping. My dreams change with circumstances, with feelings, with awareness and maturity; they change because of difficulties, because of what fits with life — and some dreams last forever. When I was small, when the world in my eyes was simple and good, my dreams were very simple too, and very airy. I wished I would do well at school; I wished everyone would like me; I wished I had nice toys like my friends. A little older, I wished my father and mother would understand me more, I wished I had a new bicycle, I wished…. By upper secondary school I wished I would get into university, and the dream of becoming an information technology engineer began right here.

And even now, when I have become an information technology student at Vinh University, I have not stopped dreaming. But now my dreams are no longer airy and far-fetched as they were before. Now I have grown up, I am mature enough to pursue with patience the dreams I want to reach. I wish that I can study well and become a good information technology engineer. This dream I have carried within me from the moment I first set foot in university until now, when I am trying to make it real. Have I truly tried for my dream? Because right now, what I have achieved still seems very far from my dream. But that is all right; I believe that if I have enough faith, enough effort, enough patience, enough striving, then I will reach my dream. Studying and pursuing that dream is the foundation for me to pursue another dream: that when I graduate I will have a steady job to help my family, which is also building a future for myself. To do that, I cannot let "a dream be only a dream"; I must strive to carry it out, for myself and for my family.

A dream?

I wish my brother could be well again.

I wish my father and mother would stay healthy forever.

I wish my family could be happy.

I wish for so much.

Dreams cost nothing, so why should I not wish? But I know there are dreams I can do nothing to carry out apart from praying; there are dreams that need many people working together; and there are dreams that need a change in oneself — a change for the better, which also contributes greatly to carrying out that dream.

I also wish that abortion could be reduced, that traffic accidents could be lessened, that orphaned children could have someone to care for them…

There are many dreams — but how many of them can I carry out?

Wishes for myself, wishes for my family, wishes for everyone. I only hope I can carry out the dream for myself, because I know it is practical and it is everything I must strive for. My family, everyone else? I do not have the ability to do it — in truth I have no ability — but I still wish, because I cannot do it, yet my God can.

The small thing I can do is to pray, and to join in prayer with everyone.

And there is more: I have one more dream, a dream running through my whole life, and that is the dream of becoming a good person.

This dream I have carried out, am carrying out and will carry out. I will accomplish it — I must accomplish it — because it is the basic goal of my life. Whatever happens later, whether or not my other dreams come true, whatever I do, however my circumstances turn out, I will not give up this dream.

Nguyễn Thị Vinh Xã Đoài Parish Field: Information Technology Vinh University