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Ambitions

Updated: Jun 21, 2020


Every child on Earth has a dream of finding a suitable job for them. Some succeed in turning their dreams into reality, but others do not. We call these dreams ambitions, or as children put it the "what-I-want-to-be-when-I-grow-up"s. But ambitions are not something we can fit into a narrow perspective. Not just children, even adults have a target or goal they strive to achieve. These can also be called ambitions.


The literal meaning of the word 'ambition' is not 'our future occupation' as many of us wrongly misinterpret. An ambition is a cherished desire or a goal we strive to achieve. It can be anything from ceasing a smoking habit to getting a selfie taken with a popular actor or simply becoming a software engineer in the future.


I too have had plenty of ambitions. I have had my dreams to look forward to. I still do. But here I'm only going to talk about my future occupation, the everyday meaning of ambition. Let's talk about the other meanings in a future post. Although I'm still undecided about my future job I do have a few ideas.


When I was really young I wanted to be someone famous and I wanted to be richer than everybody. else. I also wanted to be a superhero and my role model was the Wolverine. I was a hardcore fan of him. But those were simply childish dreams. It is part of everybody's childhood.


But when I grew older I became interested in how and why things work and I became obsessed with the evolution of artificial intelligence. So then I decided that my destiny lay in robotics and AI.


Yet, as the years moved on I found out that my engineering fantasy would only make up for the benefit of my future and of those closest to me. When I cam to think of it, I realized why I wanted to be a software/ robotic engineer in the first place. Life, in a philosophical sense teaches and tests us in unbelievable ways.


Being a successful engineer or an entrepreneur makes us content. We will have an amazing income, proud parents, a big house, a fancy car and a lovely family to settle down. This is the ideal way of living on Earth. That is why I wanted to love like that--selfishly.


As the days, manifested and died throughout the years, I started looking into the fragility of life and Earth. I felt there was a lot of things I could do to bring change. And I was curious. I wanted to know about the beginning of everything. Who are we? What will we become in the future? These and many other unanswered questions interested me.


I had always had a passion for astronomy. It is a subject in which, every time you find an answer hundreds of other questions arose. There was no shortage of questions in space science. I made use of my faculties and gathered a lot of information and I was eager to venture out into it.


But with time, I took a step forward. I started pondering over how man finds explanations for phenomena he experiences daily. It was interesting to realize that it was these explanations that our ancestors had turned into doctrines and preached long time ago.


I had some really thought provoking ideas about all this which contradicted the present belief and faith system. I started to wonder why. From this point onward, I started focusing on the truth of mankind. A truth that binds everybody together. Forget all the mysteries of the universe. Forget all the promises of technology. Forget all of it. The biggest question remains. Who is man to himself?


Just stop what you're doing, and sit back, fold your hands and look out of the window. You'll see people doing various things. Everybody has a goal. Sometimes they kill themselves to achieve it. Some give up; others persist. The truth of why we came to be is very different from what we imagine.


Through my own experiences and ideas I realized that before working towards a similar goal like becoming a doctor or an engineer we have to learn to be human. Science has listed a lot of things that discerns us from other animals. But, in my opinion there is only one major difference. We are species that are able to influence others of our own kind using empathy.


If every single one of us could open up and master the ability to feel empathy, we will create a better world to live. Our inability to interpret the feelings of other people has brought major catastrophes to the world. It is the truth. If everyone could understand how the other feels perfectly or at least even endeavours to do so, it is only a matter of simply debating wisely over the controversial subject and coming to even terms.


This philosophy is what I truly believe in. My passions in electronics, robotics, software, astronomy and from recently, the study of the human brain: noetics, were paths constructed by my conscience to make to me understand that the true purpose of living is not to live it to the fullest but to serve mankind and spread appreciation and good deeds to them. Simply being kind and caring is all we need. That is my true ambition. I want to be a good human to everybody regardless of the barriers of race, colour or status.


Of course my future lies erratic. Many of ours is. I presently have devoted myself to the study of noetics and my schooling. I have a passion for teaching and researching and I hope one day I will be a more humane scientist.


This article was written by Ashan Lawrence


Cover image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay


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