Dreams, faith, and children
Every one of us has a dream of our own. Some want to be actors, some want to become singers, and some only want a peaceful and happy life. Every dream is noble and worth carrying out. I often joke: "The only thing to fear is living without a dream; once you have one, every dream is worth turning into reality." And I — a young person carrying within me faith in Christ, a citizen of a Vietnam worth being proud of, a student of communications, an older sister in my family, someone responsible for loving another person — I too have my dream and my ideal.
When I was small, I wished I could become a singer so that I would be famous. I still remember writing in my diary: Lord, help me to try every day to turn my dream into reality. As I grew up a little, my dreams became smaller and smaller. I say smaller because there was nothing distant about them. The dreams within me then were small ones: in secondary school I wished I would get into upper secondary school; in upper secondary school I wished I would pass into university to be a communications student. And when that dream became reality thanks to talking every day with someone I had never met, I went on to ask that person for one more dream: to be able to hold firmly to my faith in Him no matter what storms might come, as they once did.
As a communications student, I can know how to steer public opinion, I can know how to make the public believe in something that is not true, and I also know how to persuade the public to follow where I lead them. It sounds like nothing but terrible things, doesn't it? And yet, also as a communications student, I have the longing to become a social activist one day, someone who can help children who do not have a good life. That is my final purpose.
I hope I can use my own written words to call on people to be forgiving toward little children, to listen to what their children say, to feel the cries and weeping of abandoned little souls. I wish I could use my projects to call on parents to give more of their time to talking with their children, so that they may understand — truly understand — one another better. I long for children, through the stories I tell, to be welcomed and loved by their parents from the moment they are born. I dearly dream that those children will also come to understand that to give is to receive.
When I accepted going to university without support from my family, I knew that my hard life was only beginning. Months of rent falling due with nowhere to turn for the money, tuition fees I still owe to this day, the times I was scolded and berated,.. all of it, perhaps, endured over a fairly long stretch of time.
So how could I get through all those terrible days? Perhaps by God's grace. God is the only one who can share the suffering I am trying to bear from day to day. God is the one who can listen to my words every second and every minute of my life. God is the One who I know will never abandon me, no matter what happens. And it is truly so: every time I look back, I still ask myself how I could have overcome all those difficulties, and then I know it was God's grace.
Perhaps it is because of the hardships I have had to bear since I was a child who was born but soon lost the sacred love of a father; perhaps it is because of the times I felt so sorry for myself that I cried on seeing my friends loved by their fathers; perhaps it is because of the hardships a child has had to overcome on her own, that I feel compassion for children whose lot is even more wretched than mine? I do not know. It is simply that I love children. I want to help those children have a better life through the communications projects I will do one day — that I certainly will do.
The last thing, for that dream so very far away, is that I wish I may hold firmly to my faith in God's love every day, so that when I face any storm, I still believe I can get through it by His grace. I have enough courage that when there are thorns, I will look up at His Cross and follow His example.
As a young person myself, I hope young people can find their true dream. If it is called a dream, then it is something beautiful; I hope young people can turn challenges into chances to grow, and believe in God, who is love.
I send my sincere and heartfelt thanks to the Our Lady of La Vang Scholarship, which has always walked beside its pupils and students. May the Scholarship Fund keep giving wings to higher and further dreams for young people, generation after generation**.**
Maria Lê Thị Duyên Tĩnh Giang Parish – Văn Hạnh Deanery Field: Public Relations Academy of Journalism and Communication
