Everyone is an idealist when they are young. And a great deal of people loses their idealist side when they hit their 30s (the rest loses it when they have a child). I strongly believe that had this not been the case, the world would be a much better place to live with a lot more innovation, and thus fulfillment and joy. Now I'm not a father (and I'm aware that "It's easy to divorce if you're single", as the Turkish saying goes!), but I still think that there's a solution to this dilemma.We should learn to scale our ideals. In other words, if necessary, we need to decrease our expectations of being a "super hero" or a historical figure, compared to our mighty childhood dreams. I wanted to be like the great Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk when I was a kid. As time went by, I realized it may not be very possible within my generation (one of the reasons being, thankfully, that there is no such need for where I come from right now). Today I have different ideals, and I'm looking for different ways of how I can utilize my impact. I try to gain experience, learn and develop myself in those different areas that will enable me to do that. So in the end I may not be able to save a whole nation or be the greatest leader of all time, but that doesn't mean that I have to settle for an ordinary life either. We can live decent lives, and enrich the lives of other people in different ways with the best of our abilities.
The good thing about pondering these types of thoughts is that it lets you see the integration points of your current reality and your dreams and goals. From this point in time, as bright as the future looks to me, I see that there are a lot of clouds in between. Thinking about such matters helps to shed some sunlight on the way.
