Prose by Hanna Yang

Edited by Alexandra Kogan

As you are walking in a never-ending desert, craving water and rest, you come to see a blurry image of a shelter, beckoning toward you. But you cannot approach it, the image never focuses. You are trying so hard to reach it, but it keeps running away from you. Dreams are like mirages shimmering on the horizon, vivid but untouchable. They appear so real, drawing you closer, only to fade away as you reach out. Is a dream just a piece of imagination? Some might say that dreams are not to be obtained. Some might say that dreams are just for dreaming. I say that dreams are dreamable as well as obtainable. A dream is not just an abstract, fleeing mirage. We can indeed attain our dreams, breaking the boundary between reality and aspiration. 

In The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham, an artist, Charles Strickland, struggles to balance his artistic desires with his inescapable economic poverty. Staring at the moon illuminated beautifully in the night sky, he wonders why his life depends on sixpence rather than the moon. The moon and sixpence. They have similar features of circular silver objects, but the distance between them is too far apart to be put together. 

We often face how vague our dreams are, too busy bearing the reality. People strive intensely to find their “dreams” of happiness–well, mostly, outside their daily lives. I was no different from those people. I chased happiness like a ray of light, reaching out to it with open hands only to feel it slip through my fingers. Just as Strickland admired the luminescent moon, I was flailing in the valley of the boundaries. 

The line between reality and dreams–blurred, shifting, ambiguous. The reality we live in is built with what we can see and what we can touch. Imagine the moon drifting just within reach, the pale light like a whisper on your skin, close enough to feel but never to grasp. Dreams are carried away just as distantly, casting a gentle glow over our everyday lives. The sixpence we hold in our hands–a piece of tangible reality–seems so plain, yet its weight keeps us grounded. 

Like the moon shining in silvery luminescence, a dream seems like a far, remote being. But what if look at, run towards, chase that beautiful yearning? What if you place a sixpence upon the moon? It can become part of the moon’s glow.

Strickland never came to realize this, but we can: the moon is always with us, whether we see it or not. Even when the sun’s dominating light reigns high, it lingers, just as our aspirations remain quietly within reach even amidst the tedious repetition of our lives. The sixpence too, can shine, only illuminated by the sunlight that falls on it during the day. And the moon we so passionately chase merely reflects the light of the sun. The moon we have long pursued wears the face of our own reality. Our yearnings are not far away; they dwell within our everyday lives. 

Now I live in the midst of those boundaries. There is no need to choose between reality and the dream. The happiness I’ve been searching for so tirelessly has always been right beside me. A morning walk at dawn, a refreshing cup of coffee after class, listening to my favorite playlist, reading my favorite book in the sunlight—all of these are moments of happiness hidden throughout my everyday. There’s no need to chase the moon; its beauty is already within us. As we tear down the boundaries in our minds, the two worlds collide into one. In the end, we search for reality within dreams and dreams within reality. Though dreams may seem as far away as the moon, its light always shines upon our lives.