During my freshman year in high school, my guidance counselor left a message on our family’s answering machine telling my mother she was concerned I might be “living on the edge of a fantasy world.”

So far as I can tell, the only reason she suspected this was because I’d told her I wanted to go to film school and eventually make movies.

First of all, at age 14, shouldn’t we all be living in fantasy worlds? Second, what’s so crazy about aiming for the career of your dreams? Most of our role m...