Naysaying the naysayers

What does one do with the naysayers which surround us? Daily, well-meaning people ask me HOW I will pay for graduate school. How will I afford to live? Why don't I settle for a job as a substitute teacher elsewhere (mind you, it IS summer time now)? Why would I possibly go into debt to get a graduate degree or degrees at this stage of my life? These are legitimate questions.

I have answers. I have the most sound, logical arguments, but they do not hear. I am a silly woman in their eyes; nice, but a bit batty or eccentric. Worse, a dreamer. And yet, dreams lead us to aspire to something greater than what we currently are or maybe to aspire to the greatness that lies within us.

I have no magic carpet or magic lamp with a genie to grant my wishes, but I do have a dream and Hope! I recently re-read the story of Pandora's Box as told by Nathaniel Hawthorne. He ends the tale with this line:
"And all the rest of their lives when Troubles would come back and buzz about their heads, they would wait patiently till Hope, the fairy with the rainbow wings, came back to heal and comfort them."