We grow up with such hopes, such dreams. We spend so much time reaching for them. We spend so much energy pursuing our shooting star. We are willing to expend everything we have and then some just to obtain that one thing that has possessed our dreams since our childhood. We push and push to grab it. But do we realize what we are pushing at? Do we know at what price we gain this thing? There are times when we should press forward; it is not in us to be without a goal and a destination. But in this pursuit, we can not forget where we are, or who is around us. We are never alone. And the choices we make do not affect us only. Sometimes it takes us awhile to realize exactly what it is that we are pursuing. Sometimes we think that we are going after this one thing, when in reality we want something else entirely. Sometimes we think that we are pursuing our goal, our shooting star, but we aren't. We are striving to please someone by climbing their ladder for them. Some goals weren't made to be met, at least not by us. Some dreams weren't supposed to be obtained. Yet, we grow up with such hopes, such dreams, such aspirations to be a better person, or at least half the person our parents were. And some dreams...some dreams are like real stars...their light takes millions of years to reach us, so long, in fact, that the star could already be dead and yet its light would still be traveling towards us. We may think that we should be a certain person, striving to be that perfect child our parents always wanted. We may think that we should try to be everything we can be because they did. In our eyes, there is no worthier aspiration: to be half the man our father was, to have half the strength our mothers had. And yet, we grow up with such hopes, such dreams of stars that shine though they be long dead. There is nothing to be gained in pretending to be someone you aren't. There is nothing to be lost in striving to be someone you know you can be: yourself, no matter who that may be. Despite everything that happens, or everything that may happen, we grow up, and we pass our hopes, our dreams, and a little sliver of who we are to the next generation. But most importantly, we grow up.