Dream big, and persist

Dream big. That's what I keep telling myself nowadays. When a person's glorious moments are coming, I am sure he/she will know it. I personally do. To me, it's now or never. I can feel the vibes in the air, the gush in the wind and the God-like sermon playing about my ears telling me: Your glory is coming. Reach out to it.

Or is it that I am dreaming?

Well, I have a high percentage of being delusional as I speak. You can choose not to read this post. But I have a question to ask each of you who is actually reading: Have you ever dreamed big? If you had, what about now? Is it even considered big, or just another typical solution for the so-called perfect life in our society?

When we live, we always have dreams. All sort of dreams: dreams to make this world a better place, dreams to do what we really like to do and triumph in it. But when life's mandate hit us, we succumb. (the mandate says: you have no money. you have no money. you have no...please iterate until you reach the end) We divert from our dreams, and we start to look pathetic, in our own eyes. One way or the other, we divert now and then. It's life, come on. It's okay to divert, actually, if you have been true to your conscience. Even if you are making the dumbest choice, if you are happy with it, I will acknowledge you. Seriously. If you feel happy watching ants making out, why not?

So, here I go. I am actually hungering for heights. Heights in academic excellence. Here I don't mean that I wanna have all the A+s, but rather I am dreaming bigger. Now I have fresh opportunities to initiate breakthroughs in geotechnical engineering and also particle simulation programs. They are not impossible tasks, as they are actually do-able. They are within my abilities. But time never seem to be enough. And confidence fluctuates now and then, until I hit myself with the idea: why not me? I mean, why I have to be so pessimistic about it? If I can make this a feat, let's do it! I still remember clearly when my boss slapped me on the shoulder and said: "Make me famous! It has to be you." That, propels me, moves me, and totally catches me.

I happened to come across an article on Hardy Cross, a famous professor in civil engineering who invented Moment Distribution Method and conduit flow calculations. It is a story which I think everybody should read, especially the engineers:-

""

Once a student named Alford told Cross that he thought one of the problem solutions in their text was wrong. Cross paced back and forth, staring hard at the student, and pointing at him fiercely. "Can you, a graduate student, actually have the temerity to accuse the internationally known engineer who wrote this book of MAKING A MISTAKE? Can you really believe that the publishers would allow such an alleged error to be printed? Can you show us the error?"

Alford seemed unable to answer.

Still pacing, Cross said, "Can anyone help Mr. Alford? Do any of you see a mistake in problem four?"

The class was silent.

"Well, Mr. Alford," Cross said sternly, "would you care to retract your accusation?"
"It's just that I can't..."
"Speak up!" Cross thundered.
"I still believe it's wrong!" Alford shouted, his face red with embarrassment.
"Then kindly come to the board and prove it to us," Cross taunted. "We shall be pleased to see the proof of your unfounded allegation."

Alford labored at the board without success for the rest of the period. Cross began his next lecture by saying, "In our last meeting Mr. Alford raised a serious and unfounded charge against the author of our text." Staring at Alford, he said, "Have you reconsidered your accusation?"
"No, sir," Alford replied. "I still believe he is wrong."
"To the board, then. We still await your proof."
Alford's labors were again unsuccessful.

The third time the class met, Cross said, "Mr. Alford, are you ready to withdraw your ill- considered accusation about problem four?"

Moments 1ater Alford was at the board. Within a few minutes he managed to show the solution to the problem in the book was incorrect, and he returned to his seat. Cross's pleasure was evident from his expression. "You must always have the courage of your convictions," he aaid. "Mr. Alford does; apparently the rest of you do not, or you are not yet sufficiently well educated to realize that authority — the authority of a reputation or the authority of a printed page — means very little. All of you should hope to someday develop as much insight and persistence as Mr. Alford."

""

That's why I am here now. I want to make myself remember this feeling of mine, now. And I will remind myself of it if I happen to lose it for a while in the future. This feeling, has to be of my safekeeping, forever. And I will like to instill it in you guys too: If you have dreams, dream big. If you dream big, have confidence. If you don't have confidence, persist until you find it. The authority (here I refer to the collective logic of a society) is not always right and in fact, it means very little if you choose to believe in your direction and purpose. So my friends, stay foolish, stay hungry while you dream big. Fools learn alot more and in the end, they are always called geniuses.


References:
For those interested in Hardy Cross, visit these links:-
An account on Hardy Cross which is written beautifully <--- Hardy Cross - wiki <--- And if you are from engineering, you probably heard of Nathan Newmark, the pioneer of the elegant solutions to dynamic equations and also a very intuitively involved practicing civil engineer. Well, why I mention him? Because he is a student of Cross, and he was always so proud of Cross.

Enjoy reading!!


p/s: This is the 100th post of my blog, and Oct 1st is the national day of China. Hurray!!