Dying from the Lack

I talked to a student of mine today who has no idea what he wants from his future.  No plan.  No goal.  No dream.  He's not alone.  Too many of my students from year to year are sitting passively or, worse yet, hopelessly. 

How do you teach somebody to have a dream?  It breaks my heart, crushes me totally, to see these beautiful people sitting there like broken butterflies waiting for some end when they should be just now starting to soar upward.  Why don't they know how talented and capable they are?  How did it come to be that so many of these lives seem to have ended almost before they've begun?

I want them to know that the entire world is theirs if they will just reach out their hand for it.  I want them to have a dream in their heart and chase it fervently, relentlessly.  I want them to take Joseph Campbell's quote, "Follow your bliss" and carve it into their hearts as a mantra, a maxim, as map.  I want them to hunger for something, anything instead of just hanging their heads and accepting whatever is tossed to them or thrown at them.

I wish I knew how to kindle that fire. I wish I had a magic wand to wave over them.   I wish I could hold them or shake them, preach to them or beg them and help them find it.  Ultimately, though, I don't know if anyone can give it to another person.  I think every person has to discover that spark inside him or herself and nurture it or it can't grow at all.  I will continue to lead them as far as I can and tell them how wonderful they are, but I still wish I knew a better way.