Today I'm going to write about dreams.
I was the sort of kid who dreamed gigantic dreams. When I was a toddler I wanted to be a doctor, when I was in early primary school I wanted to be a judge and by time I was in year 7 I was certain that I would be the first female Prime Minister of Australia (Thanks for crushing that one, Julia). The most unattainable, crazy 'dream' I've had was to be 2008 Olympic Champion in the all-around for artistic gymnastics. This would have made me the first Australian gymnast to win any Olympic medal in women's artistic gymnastics and I was not even in a pre-elite program at the time! I have my personal diary from when I was 10 years old and I really thought that was going to happen... (For those of you who didn't catch the coverage of Beijing, I didn't win :-P).
It is something that has been bothering me for a little while now, that I don't have a dream.
Initially, I couldn't work out why. Plenty of adults don't have a dream, right? It's just a part of growing up, isn't it? You're just getting more 'realistic' about what you're likely to do... This got me thinking more deeply about what a dream actually is. I thought I needed to get a better grasp on what exactly it is I felt I was missing in my psyche.
dream
n.
1. A series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.
2. A daydream; a reverie.
3. A state of abstraction; a trance.
4. A wild fancy or hope.
5. A condition or achievement that is longed for; an aspiration: a dream of owning their own business.
6. One that is exceptionally gratifying, excellent, or beautiful: Our new car runs like a dream.
I think for most folk, a dream starts off as no. 4.
I'm not crushed by the fact that I won't ever be an Olympic gymnast, that opportunity has long past. Actually attaining a dream, or getting close enough to it that it can be classified under definition no. 5, isn't something that will happen to everyone. But I'm starting to think that that might not be entirely problematic.
Even if your dream never progresses from no. 4 to no. 5 there is so much joy to be had. The satisfaction of working hard, the like-minded people you meet who become life-long friends and the specialized skills. The sense of purpose and direction you get from going to bed at night and knowing exactly what function the next day plays in turning a 'fancy' into an achievement. The steps you make along the way are ones that shape and define the key moments of your life. The lows might be lower, but the highs are much higher, too. Living seems like a deeper, richer and more colourful experience, with greater dimensions, when you are striving toward a dream.
My Pa died last year, 3 days short of his 83rd birthday. When he was young, one of his dreams (he would not have used that word) was to go to Oxford. He was an excellent student at university and also excelled as a footballer and was eligible to apply for a Rhodes Scholarship. He got very close to that dream, he was the runner up to the South Australian scholarship. Whilst he subsequently never studied at Oxford, he did become Chief Judge of the Adelaide District Court and President of the South Australian National Football League. He significantly improved the efficiency of the District Court's administration, ensuring the right to a timely trial was delivered better than ever before. He also protected the sovereignty of South Australian football and saw a stadium built to house it when other sporting authorities would not deliver a reasonable arrangement for a playing home base.
Pa did not reach that dream and yet he gained so much.
My Pa was a passionate man. He was passionate about the law, football as well as music, golf, his family and friends and a host of other things. Working toward a dream, whether you reach it or not breeds a honest, passionate zest for life.
I suspect that's what I'm missing.
Do you have a dream? If yes, please share it below! (You can comment anonymously!)
Beautiful blog Lizey... I, like you have had lots of dreams, really big ones that most people scoffed at if I shared them, especially when I was younger. I grew up in an environment where dreams were frowned upon, as they would get in the way of reality and hard work. Regardless of this, I continued to dream silently to myself, sometimes even writing them down. Like you, I will never realise some of them (I also wanted to be the first female Prime Minister!!), but I have born the fruit of many other dreams, and continue to work on them daily. When I had the lease at Beaumont House, my mother reminded me I had said when I was 12 years old I would run a function centre one day. She even remembered she had told me not to be stupid! This was one dream I had forgotten, but it just goes to show what possibilities you can create and masterpieces you can achieve if you have them. Being a 'dreamer' is usually frowned upon, but as long as you put in the hard work to go with your dreams, I believe everything is possible
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