Live and Learn

Susan Boyle was ordinary-looking, but her talent was breath-taking. She came to be one of the most popular figures on the Internet, and even more popular than Obama, in just a couple of days. She brought to the audience a miracle on April 11, 2009, when she had her debut appearance at the British talent show known as “Britain’s Got Talent.”

Susan Boyle went up to the stage, with neither the judges nor the audience expecting much. This reaction, in a sense, made sense because she looked really ordinary: 47, unemployed, fat, with messy hair. However, she struck everyone speechless at the very moment when she began to sing! Probably she was not the best singer, but she was the perfect singer of “I dreamed a dream.” She sang with her soul, mesmerizing the audience with an earnest person who held on to her dreams no matter how long it took for her to realize it.

Appendix: Lyrics

Fantine – I Dreamed a Dream

(From Les Miserables)

[Fantine is left alone, unemployed and destitute]

[FANTINE]
There was a time when men were kind
When their voices were soft
And their words inviting
There was a time when love was blind
And the world was a song
And the song was exciting
There was a time
Then it all went wrong

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, no wine untasted

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
And they turn your dream to shame

He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my childhood in his stride
But he was gone when autumn came

And still I dream he’ll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I’m living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.