Thursday, February 01, 2007
Calling all the dreamers...
So you have a dream. You think about it all the time. You fantasize about painting on the deck of a beach house you rent out for the summers, submitting designs and paintings via the internet and FedEx. You work from your home and your home is the beach. You listen to the ocean and you feel alive, at peace, exactly where you were meant to be. Your job lets you travel, take vacations around the world. You go to Italy and study the art and eat your way throught the country. The world values your unique view of the world and give you a wonderful life in exchange for having the courage to show the world what you see.
It is not easy. And sure, this might not be YOUR dream. Perhaps your dream is to go back to school to be a teacher and have the same hours as your children. Or maybe it is to open a chocolate shop in a cute little house in a cute little town. Or maybe it is to open that catering business because secretly you know what everyone says about your cooking really is true and if you had it your way you would live your days in a kitchen. It begins with a dream. Daring to say out loud that you want more. We live in an amazing country where we are spoiled rotten. We can barely have any money, yet can walk into any corner grocery store and have hundreds of choices and have a great meal for dinner. We have every opportunity and yet we feel somehow wrong to want more. How can we possibly want more in a world of excess? Maybe it is because we do not even want the excess we are told is the "American Dream." Ya know what? I don't want to own a house. At least not now. And I sure as hell don't want a car the size of a house that costs what I pay in rent. I love to rent. I love the freedom of knowing I can leave, that I am not tied down, that if the heater breaks it is not MY $3000 problem. Yes, I know, every month I am throwing money away, a house is an investment, a house is like money in the bank. That is what we are told. I don't want credit cards. I ruined my credit 10 years ago on less than $4000 because this country allows college children with no jobs and no means of paying what they spend credit cards with credit limits that seem limitless whan you have just had half a keg of beer and pizza sounds really good to you and your ten dorm friends. This country sets us up to be tied down. Locked into some dream that means going back to school is impossible, staying home with your 3 year old is a luxury, having health insurance means working in corporate america to be able to afford it. Ok, some of you business types might love it, and that is ok, if it truly is your dream. And I know, America as we know it would not exist if everyone just ran off and did what they wanted. But lets face it, not many of us are willing to buck the system and do what we want. Becuase you know what? It is HARD. And sometimes you don't do well. And sometimes you have to shift your dream for a little while, or temporarily do something else because you really don't make enough money to live, or you find out your dream does not work the way you want it to, or it is not what you really wanted after all. Because you don't even know until you try. But you still can't give up. You CAN'T. Because this IS America. And damn it, you are allowed to want more. Be more fulfilled. Want what YOU want. Whatever it is. And it might take a long time to get there. It might seem an eternity before you can finally go back to school, find the job you really want, stay at home with your baby, or find a band to start playing with on weekends because music is the only thing that really makes you fell like you. But it is never going to happen if you don't at least find the courage to say out loud what it is you REALLY want. And it is ok if it is not to own a big house, with a giant car and commute 2 hours every day. And it is ok if that is EXACTLY what you want. But whatever it is START DREAMING. Becasue you are allowed to. Because this world needs the dreamers and the risk takers. And when you fall down and it gets hard, the people that love you are there for you to help you get back up and tell you to keep going. Because there is nothing we like more than seeing someone go after their dream and getting it. Cause it gives us all hope. And hope is perhaps the most important emotion of all.
It is not easy. And sure, this might not be YOUR dream. Perhaps your dream is to go back to school to be a teacher and have the same hours as your children. Or maybe it is to open a chocolate shop in a cute little house in a cute little town. Or maybe it is to open that catering business because secretly you know what everyone says about your cooking really is true and if you had it your way you would live your days in a kitchen. It begins with a dream. Daring to say out loud that you want more. We live in an amazing country where we are spoiled rotten. We can barely have any money, yet can walk into any corner grocery store and have hundreds of choices and have a great meal for dinner. We have every opportunity and yet we feel somehow wrong to want more. How can we possibly want more in a world of excess? Maybe it is because we do not even want the excess we are told is the "American Dream." Ya know what? I don't want to own a house. At least not now. And I sure as hell don't want a car the size of a house that costs what I pay in rent. I love to rent. I love the freedom of knowing I can leave, that I am not tied down, that if the heater breaks it is not MY $3000 problem. Yes, I know, every month I am throwing money away, a house is an investment, a house is like money in the bank. That is what we are told. I don't want credit cards. I ruined my credit 10 years ago on less than $4000 because this country allows college children with no jobs and no means of paying what they spend credit cards with credit limits that seem limitless whan you have just had half a keg of beer and pizza sounds really good to you and your ten dorm friends. This country sets us up to be tied down. Locked into some dream that means going back to school is impossible, staying home with your 3 year old is a luxury, having health insurance means working in corporate america to be able to afford it. Ok, some of you business types might love it, and that is ok, if it truly is your dream. And I know, America as we know it would not exist if everyone just ran off and did what they wanted. But lets face it, not many of us are willing to buck the system and do what we want. Becuase you know what? It is HARD. And sometimes you don't do well. And sometimes you have to shift your dream for a little while, or temporarily do something else because you really don't make enough money to live, or you find out your dream does not work the way you want it to, or it is not what you really wanted after all. Because you don't even know until you try. But you still can't give up. You CAN'T. Because this IS America. And damn it, you are allowed to want more. Be more fulfilled. Want what YOU want. Whatever it is. And it might take a long time to get there. It might seem an eternity before you can finally go back to school, find the job you really want, stay at home with your baby, or find a band to start playing with on weekends because music is the only thing that really makes you fell like you. But it is never going to happen if you don't at least find the courage to say out loud what it is you REALLY want. And it is ok if it is not to own a big house, with a giant car and commute 2 hours every day. And it is ok if that is EXACTLY what you want. But whatever it is START DREAMING. Becasue you are allowed to. Because this world needs the dreamers and the risk takers. And when you fall down and it gets hard, the people that love you are there for you to help you get back up and tell you to keep going. Because there is nothing we like more than seeing someone go after their dream and getting it. Cause it gives us all hope. And hope is perhaps the most important emotion of all.
