“You can be whatever you wish” and other myths
After college, my friends and I chased fulfillment like it was the Holy Grail.
When I was in my last year of college in 1978, I tried to come up with a plan for what I wanted to do next with my life. In those days many of us were privileged to think that the future stretched before us as opportunity, and if we worked hard we could succeed at anything we wanted to do. It was a myth, of course, but it was so compelling because it was unencumbered by any nagging problems of limitations.
It still is. When my daughter graduated from college I was dismayed to hear the commencement speaker peddling the same drivel I heard when I graduated. He looked out at 5,000 young lives and proclaimed: “You are among the brightest and best we have ever seen. Set your goals high. Dream your own dreams. Chase your own star, and you can be whatever you want to be.”
It’s staggering that these ridiculously untrue claims still have a viable shelf life. No graduating class is the brightest and best; for years we’ve all been pretty evenly flawed. And while chasing stars sounds wonderful, the Bible makes it clear that even the Magi get lost in such a pursuit. But the biggest lie is that we can be whatever we want to be.
