Having a Dream Becomes Reality Essay

Obstacles always hinder people when they are trying to reach their goals, and those are just ordeals to test their perseverance. In reality, nothing can be obtained or achieved smoothly without going through any difficulties, but once people overcome the obstacles they will achieve the desired goal. In the movie October Sky, directed by Johnston, is about a young man named Homer Hickam who grows up in Coalwood and aspires to become a miner like every male in the town. He becomes obsessed with building his own rockets after he witnesses an artificial satellite goes into orbit, and he achieves a wonderful goal even though he needs to surmount difficulties. However, his passion for building a real rocket makes him willing to take risks and explore new adventures even though he fails several times. There are many kinds of obstacles people face in life, if I had not persuaded myself to keep trying, my dream of going to a better college may not have come true. Indeed, successful people are never giving up their passion to achieve their desired goal even when they are encountering challenges. Accordingly, being adventurous, persistent, and never giving up can be the key characteristics needed for making a dream come true. Adventurous people look for solutions to seek out the answers to the problems they do not understand. Most adventures have elements of uncertainty and fear surrounding them; fear about an uncertain outcome can be a huge deterrent to do adventurous activities. Adventurous people have a mindset that teaches them to seek out new events or activities that can be scary since they do not know what is going to happen, but that is where people need to go. People challenge the difficulties, which is how they can get experience and surmount the obstacles. The main character from the movie, Homer Hickam likes to take risks and challenges himself by building a real rocket after he witnesses the Soviet Union successfully launch the first artificial satellite into orbit. Homer has never touched a welding machine and has no idea how to build a rocket due to limited experience and no professional help. His curious mind makes him studies the instruction books about building rockets. Homer tries so many times to rebuild the rockets due to the failure of launching. There is one time he even blows up his mother’s garden fence, and fortunately no one gets injured. Moreover, when he and his friends test out their rocket at a wasteland, the rocket almost kills his neighbor, Leon Bolden. Even though Homer does not earn his father’s support, and launching is dangerous, he still likes to take risks and continues building rockets. Homer’s adventurous mind makes him successfully launch his real working rocket into the sky eventually. Nevertheless, having only an adventurous mind is not enough to surmount obstacles; being persistent is another key characteristic overcomes obstacles and makes dreams come true. In fact, persistence is the key to success because perseverance will take people a long way, but being willing to be patient while they achieve their goal will take them even further. Homer never quits his dream even when he is accused of having started a forest fire with a rocket that has gone astray, and despite many launching failures, Homer still continues building his dream rocket. Although Homer does not get his father’s permission to build a rocket in their basement, and his father throws his equipment away and prohibits him from doing such unrealistic activity, Homer never gives up even though his launches fail so many times due to his father’s demands. He finds a wasteland and starts building rockets with his friends hoping to go for a national Science Fair. Moreover, Homer does not give up his dream after his father gets injured in the mine. He takes over his father’s work as a coal miner to support his family, and he quits his jobs immediately after his father recovers from injury. Furthermore, Homer proves that his rocket has not gone astray and started a forest fire by showing people where his rocket has exactly landed. Homer’s continuous trying eventually leads him to win the national Science Fair, and he receives a scholarship to go to college. Consequently, without Homer’s persistent mind that leads him keep trying new methods, his dreams would not have come true. Never giving up is the first way to overcome obstacles. People failing do not mean they cannot accomplish their dreams. Never giving up always gives them a second chance, they fail sometimes but it absolutely does not mean that they fail every time. Never giving up is my motto and is what I keep reminding myself to reach where I want to be. I was born in a small and remote village in China. Technological developments and education were relatively poor in my village. As I grew up, I realized the sense in my parents’ emphasis on my education. I discovered that I was their only hope for a lifestyle change, so I decided to study hard in order to help my family to have a better life. The language barrier was one of the difficulties I met when I immigrated to the US. It cost me a lot especially in my grades since I had an extremely difficult time in communicating with my classmates and my teachers. The effect was so immense that I even thought of quitting school at one time. All this negativity came regardless of my dream and promise. However, it completely changed when my parents came for a visit, which was due to a concerned call about my poor grades. To my amazement and shock, my parents had changed significantly with a lot of gray hair replacing with the black. Their thin bodies reflected on the efforts that they had sacrificed for my stay in school. Ever since that day, I have focused on surmounting any barriers. After a lot of efforts, I finally secured a place in a college with a better reputation. Therefore, without having never giving up mindset I might not have a chance to go a college. No matter what impedes them from reaching a desired goal, successful people face difficulties instead of avoiding them. Obstacles give people a chance to get insight on many new aspects and even change their perspectives on many situations. Surmounting obstacles is an essential step people face in order to make their dreams come true. For instance, if Homer is not willing to take risks and challenging the difficulties, he cannot launch his real working rocket into the sky successfully. Persistence means continuing to work toward a goal even when it takes a long time, without persistent belief that leads Homer keeps trying new methods, his dreams of building a rocket would not have come true. Furthermore, if I did not keep reminding myself of never giving up, I probably cannot secure a place in a better college. All the examples listed above demonstrate that being adventurous, persistent, and never giving up are the key characteristics needed to conquer obstacles and make a dream come true.