Going after your dreams

As a young girl, I always had big dreams. (don't we all?) I wanted to be a ballerina.  The kind who just floated across the stage, traveling the world, doing something I loved more than anything else, but reality had to set in. It was just the three musketeers. My mom, my brother, and I, and there certainly wasn't enough money for me to take any kind of lessons, and even more so the expensive kind. (hey, being a well versed ballerina at the age of five ain't cheap.) 

Even when we are still young, and full of hope, dreams had to come face to face with reality. There is something so beautiful about a child's outlook on life. You know, anything is possible, and you're not scared one bit. Where that goes, and what happens to those feelings I'm not sure, but I do know that somewhere between childhood, the teenage years, and adulthood we all start to lose faith in ourselves. Some people call it "being a realist," other's call it "being a pessimist," I think it's just us adapting. Could this loss of fearlessness and faith in ourselves be a way of protecting us from the overbearing feeling of failure? I could just as easily agree with that idea, as I could that we also adapt to survive.

If we remained totally fearless, most of us would probably be dead. I mean let's face it, some people jump out of planes for fun, but a lot of us would also maybe keep dreaming of things that wouldn't provide for our worldly needs, like buying food. Is that sad that we sellout for money? Maybe, but I have to say that a lot of the things I "gave up," to be more realistic, or to protect myself from the feeling of being a failure brought me to the very place I find myself now. Happy with a husband of my dreams, and a baby I just can't stop watching.

I think where I am going with all of this is that over time we change, and just as we adapt so do our needs, our wants, and our desires. It isn't always a bad thing, and sometimes it is necessary, but we need to be careful that we don't sellout of our dreams because of fear. We need to have faith in ourselves and our passions because if we don't learn to embrace the beauty within us we might as well just sign up to work in a cubical call center for the rest of our lives. There is safety in that. You can't fail at that, & if you're thinking no way in hell would you ever do that job, then just tell yourself no way in hell would you ever stop believing in your dreams next time that crosses your mind. You are valuable. You have talents. You can do anything, if you just work your tail off. Don't sell out. I have faith in you even if you don't. We are all inspirational in our own way, so let's make a dent in the universe.

I know I ain't leaving without leaving my dent. So help me. I am going for my dreams. Failure may come, sure, but at least I can say I believed in myself. Which is more than I could say just a week ago. Hey, that's some kind of progress right?

Live out loud. Live your dreams. Dream big.

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