The other day I heard a song that reminded me of my younger years, when it seemed that we had so little that everything we wanted would have to wait until ‘someday.’ The song was by a Rob Thomas and part of it went something like this: “And maybe someday we’ll figure all this out, Try to put an end to all our doubt, Try to find a way to make things better; Maybe someday we’ll live our lives out loud, We’ll be better off somehow, someday.” Probably every young couple struggling to make ends meet will relate to those verses, reminding them that someday things will be better. Someday is a universal word that is used by every young person growing up and aspiring for something or aspiring to be something someday. I can hear myself saying as a teenager that someday I want a job like that, a car like that, a house like that, someday, I’m going to have a pair of boots like that, etc. Someday, represents ‘suspended hope,’ not just for youth, but for everyone who ever aspires to be or have something different someday.
At every period of our lives, my wife and I aspired ‘to be’ or ‘to have’ or ‘to do’ something someday. Someday is a ‘looking forward’ word. Whatever our current circumstances may be they have no bearing on the looking forward mentality. The very wealthiest, as well as the very poorest among us, have looking forward ambitions or hopes. Without a ‘someday,’ what would life be like? If someday was not a significant and meaningful word in our vocabulary, would it be displaced by despair? I rather doubt it; we would find another word to replace it. Why? Because we all need a ‘someday’ to look forward to. The hope of someday is energizing and gives many the will to tolerate the now, knowing that someday things will be different.
For many that ‘someday’ will never come; the dream will never see fruition or the light of day, and do you know what? It really doesn’t matter, because that someday dream propels some forward and, at least, gives them some hope to carry them a little further through life. It is very common to change dreams in the middle of the stream. It may be an even bigger and more elaborate someday dream or it may become a more realistic dream. The realistic dream becomes a rationalization that the dream was beyond our means, beyond our capacity. Our rational will be something like this: “It was a good dream, but we are pretty fortunate to have ended up with what we have.”
As an older couple, our someday dreams are minimized, but the someday dreams of our children can excite us too. They become our someday. I am to that point in life where I can say, in regards to someday, I have been there and done that. For the most part my someday dreams have been fulfilled and satisfied beyond my wildest dreams. But I haven’t forgotten what they meant to me and the kind of driving force ‘someday’ has been in my life.
We should always encourage youth to look to that ‘someday’ time when their fondest hopes and prayers will be answered. For many youth it will be a ‘material someday,’ for others it will be a ‘spiritual someday.’ Their ‘spiritual someday’ will have them standing in the temple of our God with the one that they were just betrothed to for time and throughout eternity. For another, it will have them excitedly opening a letter from the First Presidency with their family standing by, to find out where they will be sent on their two year mission for the church. Someday—what a wonderful word in our wonderful world!