Simple Childhood Dreams

I have been reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and really go to to thinking about my childhood dreams. (Yeah, I know most of you have probably read it long ago, but I am rereading for inspiration.) As I have read the book, I had a hard time coming up with what my dreams were. Maybe that is because my dreams were fairly simple and I would like to think that I dreamt bigger than what I did… don’t we all. I wish I had dreamt about being some great emancipator, or a healer, or a discoverer, or a celebrity, or something really fantastic. As I look back I realize that my dreams were all reachable if I chose to reach for them, even if they weren’t grandiose, in theory.

I know the “right” answer would be to say that I wanted to be president, or I wanted to cure cancer, or I want to travel the world, or I want to help create world peace. But if I were to be truly honest, my dreams weren’t big – at least not in that fashion. My dreams were to:
• get married and have a family
• to write a book (a blog is close right?)
• to become a teacher
• to be happy
• to not worry about money
• to have my grandparents for the rest of my life

I think at age 39, I can say that I have reached 4 of these goals - so far. I am happily married and I have 3 great kids. I am a teacher. I am happy. I still have one of my grandparents. I have not written a book... and I tend to worry about money, but for someone who grew up in the 80s and 90s when money was not a worry, I probably deserve to worry about money and prove to my parents that I did learn from them.

I know I still have a real goal to reach - writing a novel - and think I will reach it. But I also think it might be time for me design some new goals for myself and my life. If people aren't working toward something, then why are they working? "Opportunities are Like Sunrises. If You Wait Too Long, You Miss Them." ~ William Arthur Ward