I Believe in Becoming the President of the United States

By Nevethaa Rameshkumar

When I was in elementary school someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I replied with, “I’m going to be the president of the United States!” Now I did not actually want to be the president, I just liked the idea of living in the White House, and, according to my imagination, being extremely rich with piles of gold coins surrounding me. I guess I was imagining the president as Ebenezer Scrooge from the end of the story of A Christmas Carol. However, the people I told did not know that they just thought it was amazing to see a little girl want to grow up and be a person of massive influence and change the world around her. My parents were especially proud of me and were constantly encouraging me to follow this dream of becoming the president and were telling everyone around them about the big dreams I had. Of course, that dream did not make it past elementary school. While I still liked the idea of being the president, I realized that it would not be as fun of a job as I originally thought. Being the president of the United States was a lot of responsibility and I would not get to enjoy living in the White House with its huge bathrooms and fancy kitchens. So, I moved on. I tried to find something else that I wanted to do. Something that made me happy. Something that I would love. But finding that one special thing is easier said than done. For a while, I bounced around with career paths. I went from wanting to become a veterinarian to an architect, to wanting to become an aerospace engineer. Eventually, my junior year of high school, I settled on forensic science. This was a far cry from becoming the president of the United States, but it was something that I enjoyed and could see myself happily doing. However, that original big dream of becoming the president of the United States is something that still motivates the dreams I have today. I would still love to live in a nice house with those huge bathrooms and fancy showers. I would also love to become rich so I can help the world around me. With my new dream of forensic science, I thought I could help the world by helping to solve crimes and make the world a safer place little by little. I have had people who have told me to just take what I can get and settle. They tell me it is okay to just have a nice job and make money and keep my dreams realistic. But I disagree, I think it is a good thing to have big dreams. Those big dreams motivate me and push me to do more by working harder and pushing me to make something of myself. With big dreams more things could be possible such as reducing poverty, better health care, and even solving problems such as climate change. Even now we have seen tremendous changes, such as finding environmentally friendly fuel sources, and more scientific discoveries like the first picture of a black hole that was recently taken a few years ago and even more recently the coronavirus vaccine. I think that if no one had big dreams, then we would not have all the Tesla cars, iPhones, and other fancy technology we have today. Big dreams are what change the world and keep it moving forward. So, I believe in becoming the president of the United States.