So this has to be one of my favorite scenes of my favorite movies:
In this scene from Step Brothers, Robert tells Dale and Brennan that they shouldn’t “lose their dinosaur.” He tells a story about when he was a boy all he wanted to be was a dinosaur, and he lost that dream when at 17 his dad told him to stop acting like a dinosaur and get a job.
As ridiculous as the scene is, didn’t it happen to all of us at some point?
When I was a kid all I wanted to be was a writer. I would write short stories, and try to begin novels. I wrote poetry, and in high school was editor of the school paper. In college, I studied creative writing. On graduation day the main question from my family was, “Now what are you going to do.”
In our society, there is a perceived separation between childhood dreams and reality, as though the two could not exist. The reality is that in this society, for it to function properly, we can’t all be movie stars, presidents, and athletes. But overall why do we need to lose our dinosaur?
Social media has given us the ability to take back our dinosaur. In my case, you are reading this blog post, so while I may not have written a book (yet) I am obviously getting to leverage my love for words.
Other things I wanted to do when I was a kid:
Be an archeologist – I really thought Indiana Jones was cool, and wanted to run away from giant boulders. If this was still my passion why couldn’t I take a video camera on some amateur archeological digs and highlight them in blog format.
Be a musician – When I was in college I was convinced I would spend the rest of my life playing music, this didn’t happen, but again there is no reason I can’t self produce my music and share it with the world via P2P software, iTunes, and some web savvy.
Even my teenage cousin has started to pursue his dreams in this fashion:
However, Dr. Seuss said it best:
I’m sorry to say so
But, sadly it’s true
That bang-ups and hang-ups
Can happen to you.
Society needs people to do all types of jobs, and with that we often settle. However, the bright side of this is that we do not have to be defined by what we do for money.
Find your dinosaur again. Begin to experience those things that your dreams used to be built on, and share them with others in the world. Don’t be surprised one day that on top of being happy you all of the sudden have a profitable blog, youtube channel, or some other revenue channel you have made just because you love it is what you are doing.
