When you dream, dream big

It is a very good thing to have dreams. In fact, I think that it’s imperative that we talk about our dreams, and foster them, and get encouragement from the people around us, and then run like hell after the desires of our hearts. God puts those desires there for a reason, you know…

In that spirit, what do I want to do with my life? What am I passionate about? I want to dabble in a million different things, and see many dreams come to fruition. Uh oh – I don’t know that I was meant to hold down a job…

One dream that has been constant since I was a very little girl: I want to be a backup singer. I want to live in Nashville, and sing in all sorts of “behind the scenes” ways. I think that my voice is best suited to be a support to others who actually have true charisma, and what would be better than getting to be super-mysterious and sing all the fun parts with none of the fame? I want to write country songs about unrequited love.

I want to travel to New Zealand, and hike and lay on the beach. Italy is beckoning, too – mostly because of my love of food and wine. And organized crime. I want to backpack across Europe. I want to drive from Seattle to Alaska along the coast of B.C., and see a real live moose. I want to sleep in a mud hut in Africa. I want to make it to Hong Kong. I want to do a major Road Trip USA, and drive through small towns and see who I meet. I didn’t used to, but now I think I might want to see Hawaii.

I want to be a graphic designer, which yes, I know, would require me learning how to be a graphic designer. I want to be a photographer. I want to learn how to actually use my Macbook for all sorts of media purposes. I want to build my own website (keep an eye out for www.hootenannie.com).

I want to be a florist. More importantly, I want to deliver flowers and make people smile all day long.

I want to be a bartender in a small, dim, pseudo-European bistro. I would make delicious gimlets and small talk, cocktails and friends.

I want to be a published writer in some capacity. Articles? Stories? A book? It will NOT be poetry, since my sophomore English teacher told me that my poem about sandpaper was trite (“So rough, making things smooth…”). Dream killer. Naysayer. :)

I want to get a group of women together and read our junior high journal entries out loud. The shame, the disgrace! It is a great comfort to me that no matter how bad life gets, no matter what happens or what shit hits the fan, I never have to go back and repeat junior high.

I want to have opportunities to wear dresses. I love dresses. Please, for the love, someone throw a party or something – I want to wear a dress!

I want to flip houses. I want to take old, run-down, beaten up structures, and revamp them into homes. I want to pick out kitchen appliances and flooring and colors for the bedrooms. I want to take a sledgehammer to a wall.

I want to be an event planner, a business woman in a suit, a professional organizer. I want to be financially savvy, and to know enough about money to help other women. I want to go on business trips and network and mingle and work hard and succeed.

Just once, I want to win at Trivial Pursuit.

I don’t know that I want this, but let’s just say that I think it would be good for me to spend at least 2 weeks backpacking out in the middle of nowhere. No makeup, no showers, no mirrors, lots of dirt and blisters and spiders and grit. Survival.

I want to run in a race, even if it’s just a 5K. I used to think that I wanted to run a marathon, but even I, in my “dream-big” state of mind, know that just isn’t going to happen. God gave me weak knees.

But God also gave me child-bearing hips, and I intend to use them. I want to be a mom. I want to have lots of babies and raise them to be really good people. I want to have a little tribe that I can love and sing to and rock to sleep and load into an Audi wagon. I wonder what they will be like?

I want to be an excellent, healthy, life-giving companion to a really good man. I want to fully trust, and be trusted, and be committed through the good times and the bad. I want to be married to my best friend. I want to witness the beauty of seeing things through.

And I really, really want to be comfortable in my own skin.

I believe that I was meant to do a great many things. Watch and see – just maybe I’ll accomplish everything that I dream of?