Your dream is not your reality [Vietnamese gold medal at the Rio Olympics]

Not something you always wish for can become your reality, but I guess yesterday an ordinary hero once again showed me that it can. I know what the folks say, work hard and one day your dream will be your reality. But for me, the job search process has been brutal and like other soon-to-be graduates, I never know which road it will lead me to. 
For instance, I applied for a pastry chef internship position with Chef Chris Hanmer in downtown Sioux Falls and never received a call back since then. It’s my dream, kind of, since it’s also a very impromptu decision. And it was easy for me to forget some basic facts that 1. I am not experienced with professional baking whatsoever and 2. The position could be competitive (I mean, Chris Hanmer?!:|@$#^&). In the end, I was not accepted. And I might work somewhere else. But my problem is I always let myself immersed in the picture of working in some fancy place that I might never actually get in. Or I imagined being with someone that I know will never work. And that’s how things go. C’est la vie. I am not particularly sad about it, knowing the future is once again open and undetermined and that all of my logical predictions could still fall short. So I’m ok.
But yesterday, Hoang Xuan Vinh, a man who brings Vietnam the first EVER gold medal in the Olympics game, has made me think twice about this whole dream-reality thing. In short, before he touches the gold medal last night, he has lost several, several competitions in and out of Vietnam, and most recently in the Olympics 2 years again when he won 4th place. He started late in air rifle, had his share of remarkable, historical lost from previous games, and Vietnamese newspapers hail his unstoppable desire for winning despite his having lost his two moms twice. It seems like a typical hero story on the paper front, and I think he deserves to be called a hero as well. But I also know that, a few months from now — no, that’s too fast — a few years from this Olympics, most people will not remember him anymore, or they will pretend that they don’t remember. The remuneration for veteran athletes in Vietnam is not the best, if not to say the worst. Xuan Vinh is sure to be living in the glory of winning and love from his family and friends now, he deserves it; but I hope Vietnam will remember its heroes on the international playground even years from now, and remember it enough to treat his wife and children well.
So I guess some dreams can be your reality, and to chu Xuan Vinh dreams have happened yesterday. I’m so very proud as a Vietnamese. But we can remember for one-two thing that dreams don’t last forever, and reality is an endless unexpected journey. And that’s why dreams can only be within your 8 hours of sleep, and the rest of your time is to stay awake and to try as hard as you can.