I’m at a strange point in my life where instead of aspiring to do all the things I want to do, I’m actually doing most of them. The things I’m not doing, I am at least working toward. So now my mind has turned to the dreams at the very edge of my reality.
I mean, I’m with Jack Johnson when he says, “don’t let your dreams be dreams,” but these few I don’t see fitting into my life as it stands now.
I want to write a column. There’s nothing so weird about this one, but I’m not otherwise interested in journalism and am not interested in being a reporter. Even free lance doesn’t appeal to me. When it comes to blogging, I am very back and forth about whether I want a bigger audience or whether I prefer flying under the radar. I don’t know that the stress of having a lot of people read my writing wouldn’t take all the fun out of it. I also don’t know what I would write about.
I want to do something in politics. My interest in politics was reignited in the lead up to the last election and it hasn’t gone anywhere. I definitely don’t want to be a politician. Not sure I want to work for a politician either. Maybe what I want to do is write about politics.
I want to live in New York. I have never lived in a real city and New York doesn’t seem like a good fit for me. But, I just really want to live there–at least for a little while. Maybe while writing my column about politics that someone mysteriously hands me even though I have no experience.
I want to be a rock star. This is the craziest of all. I can’t sing. I can only play the clarinet and not very well. I’ve never written music and seem to have no natural inclination toward it. Oh, and I’m very shy and can’t imagine performing in front of people. But, like, when I see concerts, I oddly want to be the center of attention, singing my heart out to a bunch of people who my music matters to. That sound extremely narcissistic. Maybe that’s why it’s so appealing. That and I love music.
Somehow this turned into all the things I secretly want to do and the million reasons I shouldn’t want to do them/would be terrible at them. For now, it’s enough to say them out loud. In time, I will figure out how to accomplish some and others will fall away or be replaced.
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{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Dreams lead you to where you are supposed to be in life…Growing up my dreams for my life were to live in NY in a brownstone and be a writer for the New York Times lol…Never came close to that in anything…My job doesnt require writing skills…and I live 10 mins from DC where I grew up…
Sometimes dreams are meant for the future you and have nothing to do with the present you. Just remember what they are and make sure to keep stepping towards them.
Have you ever read this?
http://www.amazon.com/Put-Your-Dream-Test-Questions/dp/0785214127
ABSOLUTELY changed my life. I highly recommend it!!
I can agree with the wanting to write a column. I was a journalism major for awhile and I realized that “reporting” the news was not what I wanted to do, but blogging is a bit like having your own column.
New York is probably not for me. I love Philly because it’s still a huge city, but not quite as huge as NY.
I was thinking about this today actually. It’s not a secret dream as such, but I’ve decided I want to go to my first baseball game when I’m state-side this year!
Believe me, you don’t even have to have political knowledge to write a political opinion piece in a newspaper. At least not around here. I’m not sure how you can be a rockstar, but you pretty much write a column every time you blog and if you start writing occasionally about politics then you’d be moving towards those dreams with little effort.
Hmmmm, these are all very good dreams and I hope you achieve some of them (especially the “being a rock star” one). I’ll share a thought on living in NYC, because I’ve always wanted to do that too. I’ve been considering what I would do if I don’t end up in a PhD program, and what cities I might move to after I leave here. Though I’ve always wanted to live in NYC, I think the idea of just moving there without something lined up or something definite like school is very daunting. While there are other big cities I think one can just go to, I don’t know if I personally could handle NYC on those terms.
I go back and forth on whether or not I want a big blog. I mean, it would be so cool to win awards and feel the adoration of thousands (okay, maybe several dozen) but on the other hand, I love that I know who each and every one of my commenters are and you just don’t get that when you have 100 people commenting (or more).
If you want to get involved in politics but not be a politician, be a lobbyist or advocate. But for GOOD things like medical research and social justice and things like that. There are a lot of organizations who need people to meet with senators and representatives to help sway policy. I’ve done it for diabetes. It’s fun. Ish.
I live in NYC. I am a city person. I want to always live in a city until I have babies (and then I want OUT!). It’s a hard place to live but if you come, at least you will have some friends here already.
Being a rock star would be awesome. I can’t, sadly, can’t sing either.
You can be a rockstar professor! All the young nerds will consider you one! ;)
“don’t let your dreams be dreams”
When I realized that last year, I started to make my dreams come true. Do it Ashley.
And yes, I want to live in NYC too. I need a change. I LOVE Chicago, but I think it’s time for me to go exploring.
I actually understand the rock star thing because I um, want to be on Broadway. Maybe that’s why I’m a teacher. Me = attention whore :D
I want to secretly be a rock star too! Well, sort of. I think I want to be a celebrity in general, but that makes me sound much more shallow than I want to sound, and celebrities don’t always have talent, but I really want to. This, however, is totally out of character. My best friend can’t even believe that I lip sync (lip sync, not even really sing!) in the shower! *sigh* Do you think everyone really secretly wants to be the center of attention?
Sometimes I have dreams that I am part of a girl group like Destiny’s Child and it’s the most awesome thing ever! Except there’s always a point right before I wake up when I forget the choreography and have a panic attack. Not sure what that means . . .
I’ve always wanted to be a rock star. I can sing, but I can’t play any instruments and I can’t read music (AT ALL, it’s a wonder how I survived 7 years of choir in school).
I want to write a column, too, but I suppose for my life as a journalist, that makes a bit more sense.
I think we all have dreams like these. Mine are a bit more broad and pretty much surround any kind of job that requires minimal work, pays me a fortune, and allows me to sleep in every single day. Ah, now that would rock.
I want to live in New York too. I think I will try it someday, even if it’s only for a little while. But definitely not when I’m a grad student. Being a poor college student is already hard enough, but a poor college student living in one of the most expensive cities in the U.S.? Pass.
And when I was 19, I totally wanted to be a rockstar! I even took guitar lessons for 6 months, but lost my attention span for it. =p
Good luck with your dreams!
Weirdly enough, I ALSO want to write a column and be a rock star. It’s a strange combo but I think it could work.
Unfortunately we also have the inability to sing well in common. :)
I like this. I think its awesome that you have ACHIEVED your dreams, so you get to have secret silly ones! That’s amazing.. :)
I totally wanted to live in NYC when I was in my Felicity phase about ten years ago. Maybe you will be the first mediocre-clarinet-playing rockstar. Stranger things have happened. ;)
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having those fantasies! I call them fantasies because, as you smartly stated, they don’t really fit into your life plan; they’re not really dreams of yours in the sense of goals you hope to reach, but they are fantasies — dreams of another life that you don’t really want but like to imagine anyway.
I too wanted to spend at least a year living in NYC until I realized I just didn’t have the time for it; it just wasn’t where I was supposed to be. I followed another path, and that’s ok. I enjoy visiting once in a while and pretending I live there. :-)
I do write a column, the editorial in my company newsletter almost every month. It’s fun. I love it. I was a journalism major, and I wanted to be a reporter. I do freelance. And, I realized, you’re right again: getting paid to write kinda takes the fun out of it. LOL… maybe that’s why I started blogging!
Good luck with your dreams! Have fun with your fantasies!
For the dreamer in you, check this out: (I think you will love it as much as I do!)
http://www.veryawesomeworld.com/awesomebook/inside.html
<3
Go for it! You can definitely turn dreams into reality! Especially something like writing a column, doing something in politics or living in NY. I guess you could do the whole rockstar thing too but it could take longer than the others…unless you go through American Idol or one of those shows…. :)
dreams are the answers to the questions we haven’t yet figured out how to ask.
i firmly believe that.
i hope you find all your dreams soon…..or that you’re lucky enough to have them find you! xx
I want to write a column, too. I’m not interesting in the reporting side of journalism. It annoys me, quite frankly, and stunts my creativity. But writing a column seems like such a fun job to have! I have a lot of secret dreams, too. It’s fun to have them, even if you know they’re just dreams.