Forgive me for being a little poetic here. I'm high, and I grew up on Calvin and Hobbes.
A hope is not the same as a dream. People equate the two a lot, but they're really quite different. They may have some dictionary definition, but if that doesn't impart meaning, then it is equivalent to being meaningless if you are trying to learn. I'd like to provide you with some definitions that give you a better understanding, and let you know how to ~jUsT fOllOw yOuR DrEaMs!~ within the realm of feasibility, and admittedly, circumstance. But, at least you will know what direction you would like to go.
Dreams and hopes, in the sense of aspirations, are desires. Specifically, they are generally thought of as higher-order volitions. What's a higher-order volition? It's a volition, but on a higher order. That's too simple an explanation! Volitions are the expression of wanting to do something. They are not the action taken to do it, they're just the current form of your desire to do a thing. Volitions can be more or less intense than others, and so on. They can also be of different orders. Here, we're talking about a hierarchy, like an order of priority. Your base volitions are those things that you desire to do, right now, so much that you are currently doing them. Then you've got stuff you want to do, and will do.
Higher-order volitions are those desires to do something, but that you don't want to actually do. Obviously, you've felt this. Wouldn't it be nice if I could just be happier with less? Wouldn't the stress go away? We have these thoughts too. A higher-order for me is to lose some damn weight. I want to do it, but in another way, I want to want to do it. I have a conscious thought that I want to do it, but I lack the will to do it, or at the very least, I am not acting in accordance with what I actually want to do. In ancient Greece, they might call that akrasia. Here in good old Atlanta, Georgia, you might run into someone slick enough to call it gumption deficiency.
The point here is not to identify what hopes are, so far. Instead, up to this point, I hope to have kept your attention long enough to explain that this is not what hopes are.
Hopes are intrusive, despite you being awake. If you are in danger, you might hope for a rescue. If you are about to perform a song, you might really hope they like it. You may daydream of being liked, not just to be liked, but because what you offered was liked. You may have an intrusive thought and believe that it is narcissistic to have it, because you are thinking very highly of yourself in your highly condensed daydream, and everyone likes what you brought. Then, you show up to reality, and it's not that way. You learn some humility, sure, but what that little thought identifies is that you genuinely care. That you cared more about them liking what you had to offer in your dream than you cared about you shows that you care.
What makes hopes special is that they are involuntary. They don't lie to you. They are what you wish for. You won't get your wishes just because you wish for them, but by paying attention to them, maybe you can identify what you really want to do with your life.