Living the Dream

"Everett was strange. Kind of different. but him and McCandless, at least they tried to follow their dream. That's what was great about them. They tried. Not many do." - Ken Sleight

I was reading about Everett Ruess's adventures and I came across the quote above, which I wanted to share with y'all.
A lot of people are quick to judge Alex/Chris, saying that he was ungrateful of all the good things he had in life, and crazy to go off into the wild. I totally agree with them.
However, I think he would have been crazier if he had remained in civilization and done what was expected of him. He would have been crazier if he had gone to law school, graduated summa cum laude, gotten a job at a successful law firm and settled down. Why would he have been crazier? Well, it's simple, really. If he had done all those things, those things that were expected of him, but not what he wanted, he would have lived a life that was not his. He would not have followed his dream.
As children everyone has dreams. We dream of becoming surgeons, lawyers, firemen, astronauts. We hope to see every part of the world, to climb the highest mountains, to discover the undiscovered. But somewhere along the way many people lose sight of those dreams. Life happens. They are forced to settle for less than they had hoped. They are told to "stop dreaming and grow up" because their dreams will never come true. Some people accept that and stop dreaming, or more accurately, stop living. Others, on the other hand, never give up. They look for ways to make their dreams come true. They try to look for ways to be satisfied in life. Chris McCandless was one of those people. He worked to make his dream come true. Sure, his dream was a little out there, and he didn't exactly take the necessary precautions he should have, but he still did it. He did it despite what people said, he did it despite the possibility of failure. Although he died before his time, he died knowing that he had achieved his biggest dream in life. I like to believe that he died satisfied with his life accomplishments.
Some might say that I'm putting McCandless up on a pedestal and making him sound like a hero. I know it might seem so, but that's not what I'm doing at all. I'm merely pointing out the fact that he was able to do something many people are afraid to do: try to follow their dream. I just hope that as I move onto the next stage of my life that I have the same amount of courage and self-confidence he had, and that I am able to achieve all my dreams in life.