Dreamers - keep on dreaming and keep working hard to achieve your goals. There are many difficulties, but what matters is to stay focused and have perseverance.
Bad Bunny: Dreaming With Purpose, Performing With Conviction
In a moment that transcended sport and spectacle, Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny opened Super Bowl LIX with a performance that became a statement about identity, dignity and belonging. As millions watched, he chose to centre his heritage unapologetically, delivering a set that celebrated Puerto Rican culture while addressing its ongoing political and social struggles. This week, we reflect on his words about the relationship between dreams and discipline.
Bad Bunny: "Dreamers - keep on dreaming and keep working hard to achieve your goals. There are many difficulties, but what matters is to stay focused and have perseverance."
When Ambition Meets Purpose
Bad Bunny's Super Bowl performance demonstrated something vital about ambitious leadership. He did not simply pursue visibility for its own sake. He used the world's largest stage to assert the value of a community often marginalised in mainstream American culture, performing in Spanish and weaving in imagery that honoured Puerto Rico's complexity and resilience. The performance sparked debate precisely because it refused to dilute its message for palatability. This is what happens when ambition is tethered to conviction: the dream becomes inseparable from what you stand for.
Bad Bunny reminds us that staying focused means keeping sight of why the goal matters, not just that it matters. The difficulties he references are not abstractions - they are the structural barriers, the doubters, the moments when compromise looks easier than conviction. His Super Bowl performance showed what becomes possible when you refuse to abandon what you stand for: a platform becomes a statement, visibility becomes advocacy, and perseverance creates space for others to see themselves represented.
The Discipline of Staying True
Bad Bunny’s leadership aligns with the Laidlaw value of being #Ambitious and the Oxford Character Project virtue of #Purpose. Being ambitious means holding on to a big vision while putting in the steady work to reach it. Purpose means staying clear on why that vision matters, so you can keep going when the work is difficult and the outside noise gets louder.
A Call To Reflect
We invite you to reflect on Bad Bunny's challenge. What dream are you pursuing, and what does it ask you to stay focused on beyond personal achievement? Where in your research, Leadership in Action project or studies have difficulties tempted you to compromise on what matters most? How might perseverance look different if it's rooted not just in reaching your goal, but in staying true to why it matters?
Hi! I'm Amanda, a third year Neuroscience student and Laidlaw alum from UCL. I'm Swedish-Persian and grew up in Sweden before moving to London for uni. These days, alongside my studies, I work for the Foundation as a Marketing Assistant.
For my first year research project, I worked on optimising alginate hydrogels for 3D astrocyte culture systems. In simpler terms, I was figuring out the best way to prepare a jelly-like scaffolds so that star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes could grow in three dimensions rather than flat on a dish. This matters because 3D environments mimic the brain more realistically, which could help researchers develop better treatments for neurological disorders!
For my Leadership-in-Action project, I co-created Beyond the Books, a resource designed to help students from underrepresented backgrounds navigate the unwritten rules of university life, from internships and networking to professional opportunities that aren't always obvious if you're the first in your family to go to uni.
Always happy to connect, whether you want to chat about neuroscience, widening access, the Laidlaw experience, or just say hello! One of my favourite things about this community is getting to meet people from different universities and backgrounds, so please do reach out! 🌟
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