Dreams are very dangerous drugs. They seem like a good idea at first. They fill your mind with ideas and passion and fire, a drive to take on the world and then some. Following use, the user feels the greatest of highs, ready to take on their goals, driven by the immediacy of promise. But you see, the problem with dreams is this: as is often the case in these situations, no one warns the user before they start using. All anyone can ever talk about it is how great it will be once they start. “Have dreams; they’ll take you far,” “have dreams; they’ll make you happy,” “have dreams; you’ll make something of yourself, your life.” But the problem is, no one ever warns you of the side effects.

As great as dreams are, as great as they make you feel, they have some downsides. They become all consuming, never to be satisfied. Because once you start, you really can’t stop. They just won’t let you. The user must keep going and going and working and working. Just keep pushing, never stop. Always working. Pushing. Trying. Keep going. Don’t look back. Only forward. Very far forward. You have a future, dreams, aspirations. You have to push yourself, reach your goals, test your limits.

Once a user starts using, each high is never good enough. The high gets higher and the gap between reaching and falling gets wider and wider. The higher you go, the more the fall will hurt. Don’t look down. Only up. Down is scary, down is frightening, down is not okay, never okay. But what happens when that dream can’t be reached? It’s bound to happen at some point. You’ll lose your footing, you’ll mess up, you’ll get stressed out. You’re only human, after all. But the ground is so far, and the high is so high, and falling. Falling hurts. But sometimes it just happens. You fall. You hit ground zero. But you pick yourself up, you dust yourself off, and you start all over again.

No one ever warned you of the side effects. Maybe you shouldn’t have used in the first place.