I've been thinking a lot about dreams lately. Probably because publishing this book has been such a dream of mine for so long and now it is out there. This weekend, whenever I found myself in a public area, I looked around at the people around me and thought, 'Does that person have a dream? I bet they do. What is it? What is it that they secretly hope for themselves?'
So many of my friends and co-workers were surprised when they heard that I had written a book. I had kept it such a secret, only a few, few people knew. I didn't even tell my husband about it until it was almost completely done. No one knew that for more than a year, I was sneaking time here and there, feverishly tapping out my words late at night, and when my family was out, all along wondering if I was being silly to devote so much time to something that no one else might ever know about. And there is something about having a dream that no one else knows about, isn't there? If you keep it to yourself, it can stay your dream, the thing you think about and imagine can change your life, if only... Once you put it together, once you put your dream out there, it changes, doesn't it? It's not something you can hold as a fantasy anymore, it's real now, and all you can do is wait and see if everything you put into comes to fruition. When you put it out there, you give up something, you give up the thing that you were able to imagine your dream might be, for the reality of what it actually is. And that's kind of scary too.
What if it fails? What if it fails spectacularly? Or just fades away, never really going anywhere in the first place? What if someone laughs at you behind your back? You, of all people, who are you to have the audacity to think that your dream can come true? you ask yourself.
Anyway, to any of my friends that are holding a secret dream in their heart, I just want to let you know, I know how you feel. And I hope you go for it. And I'll always, always support you and your dream, just as you've supported me.
So many of my friends and co-workers were surprised when they heard that I had written a book. I had kept it such a secret, only a few, few people knew. I didn't even tell my husband about it until it was almost completely done. No one knew that for more than a year, I was sneaking time here and there, feverishly tapping out my words late at night, and when my family was out, all along wondering if I was being silly to devote so much time to something that no one else might ever know about. And there is something about having a dream that no one else knows about, isn't there? If you keep it to yourself, it can stay your dream, the thing you think about and imagine can change your life, if only... Once you put it together, once you put your dream out there, it changes, doesn't it? It's not something you can hold as a fantasy anymore, it's real now, and all you can do is wait and see if everything you put into comes to fruition. When you put it out there, you give up something, you give up the thing that you were able to imagine your dream might be, for the reality of what it actually is. And that's kind of scary too.
What if it fails? What if it fails spectacularly? Or just fades away, never really going anywhere in the first place? What if someone laughs at you behind your back? You, of all people, who are you to have the audacity to think that your dream can come true? you ask yourself.
Anyway, to any of my friends that are holding a secret dream in their heart, I just want to let you know, I know how you feel. And I hope you go for it. And I'll always, always support you and your dream, just as you've supported me.