Everyday Canvas

When the Dream Ends

Prompt: "When life offers you a dream so far beyond your expectations, it's not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end." -- Bella
Do you agree or disagree?

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I certainly do agree; I would be (and I am) grateful for having the experience of living such dreams beyond my expectations.

For example, I feel wonderful about having several of my teachers--through high school and beyond--to care about me so much. I am not in school anymore; it has been decades since, but what they instilled in me is enough joy and support for the rest of my life. True, I would love to continue being so supported and having my teachers about all the time, but like everything else, formal education had to end somewhere.

Any party ends sometimes. Even Cinderella had to leave the ball at midnight, but in that ball, she met her prince charming. Just the memory of him probably made her cherish the time she spent at the ball. She didn’t grieve over the ball’s ending or having to return to her former life. She might have returned to her former life, but the experience made her a changed person, because it was that changed person the prince came after, later on. Then, like Cinderella’s story, all other fairy tales end, too.

When such a wonderful experience that is beyond belief ends, it is almost like losing a beloved person. Bearing the sadness and the emptiness a person or an experience leaves behind and living through the sorrow or the shock of it might be difficult, but having known that person or having lived through that experience is a consolation in itself. The caveat here is not to burrow ourselves in the memory of it, but continue living the life the best we can. After all, isn’t life itself something so precious and so far beyond expectations?