Dreamers—Your ventures and life goals have real deadlines.

A Perspective By Chance Wilson

How many people reading this can think back to what they were doing right before the pandemic hit? Or during those first few weeks of chaos? When announcements were replayed daily with overly optimistic quarantine estimates and vague hopes for when it might all end. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months—and before you knew it, a year had passed. Twelve whole months gone in the blink of an eye, like someone racing to the end of the most suspenseful chapter in their book.

It was one of the lowest points millions around the world had ever faced. Loneliness, already familiar to many, surged to catastrophic levels. Anxiety reached new heights as countries drifted together into the unknown. Plans made months in advance were constantly canceled, and minds scrambled to salvage any sense of normalcy. Even the most anticipated events paled in comparison to the looming fear of a sickness that seemed to emerge everywhere.

You’d think that going through such an experience would make every person intensely intentional about chasing whatever’s on their bucket list. But not exactly. In true human fashion, most of us leaned back into the comfort of simply having made it through—and tucked away the fuel that once powered our ambitions. You would think, with all the lives lost during that time, society as a whole would learn. Learn that today is an unexpected gift, and tomorrow is a promise not yet fulfilled.

With such complexities at play when contemplating how to seize the moment, I think of this: our dreams and goals keep us up at night for a reason. It’s because they’re not done with us—until we’re done with them.

So waste no more time. Because every dream, at some point, must end.