Jane the Virgin is my most recent Netflix binge and I'm slightly obsessed. (Spoiler alert) In the first episode, there is a flashback between the main character, Jane and one of her love interests, Rafael. He asks her what she wants to do with her life and she asks:

We've all been there. The moment where our dreams and reality don't tie together in a cleanly knit package of perfection. The moment where we realize that paying our student loans and having a job we love might result in eating Ramen for at least the next 10 years of our life.

Well, I have one thing to say about these unfortunate reality checks that plague the minds of us undergraduates finishing our bachelor degrees. Screw it and just do it. Screw the people in the world who are telling us we're too young, too inexperienced, or too naive to do what we want with our lives. We're at the perfect age to just go for it and follow our dreams.

A lot of us subconsciously decide, after graduation, whether we are going to be an idealist or a realist. In our society, I feel like there's a negative connotation with the idea of being an idealist. Idealists are thought to have their heads in the clouds, to be impractical about what the future holds. I don't see it that way. I like to think of these people as dreamers.

A lot of truly influential people fall into the category of "dreamer." Einstein was a dreamer. MLK was a dreamer. JK Rowling was a dreamer. These people saw something they wanted and went for it without any reservation. They didn't stop pursuing their dreams even when people told them they were being foolish or when they had to find odd jobs to help pay the rent.

I'm not saying that all of us are going to make the history books or become best-selling authors by following our dreams. But if a Jewish immigrant from Germany, a preacher from Georgia, and a single mom from Scotland didn't give up on their dreams and were able to impact the world with those dreams, what's saying we can't do the same?

Pursuing your dreams is complicated. You're going to have to work for it. Yes, it will take time and there are going to be moments when you'll want to quit and settle. But what is the point in living if you don't have something to live for? If everyone was practical and played it safe, the world would be a pretty dull place.

So (again, spoiler!):

Dream big. If you want to teach English to underprivileged children in Uruguay, find a program that gets you there. Custom-make your dreams. If you want to settle down in a suburb and have enough kids to create your own soccer team, shoot for that goal (pun intended). Work hard for your dreams. If you want to become the scientist who cures cancer, spend those weekends in the library even when your friends are begging you to go out.

Yeah, there's a chance you're going to fail. But doesn't the uncertainty of your success make the entire experience even more exhilarating? Plus, if you aren't a little scared about your dreams, do you really want them enough? It's time to be impractical and let the haters hate. Be a dreamer.