A Guest Post: "Hopes and Dreams"

I was asked to write a guest post for the wonderful blog "Love is Home".

Joelle was so sweet, and asked me to tell about my hopes and dreams. My opinions on this topic have been humbled by experience, but here's what I shared. Visit Joelle's blog to read more!

Note: photos are appropriately from a recent "dream" backpacking trip to Greece/ Turkey

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When I was first asked to do this guest post, I had a rush of excitement… Excitement that was swiftly side-tackled by my inhibitions regarding the subject matter of the post.

“Just write about your hopes and dreams, and how you keep track of them” Joelle asked me… The dreamy child-like “I can do anything” spirit in me thought “you BET your a** I can talk about my hopes and dreams!!” then my confused almost-adult state swooped in with the inhibition and embarrassment I feel about the topic.

This mid-twenties thing is a weird place to talk about “hopes and dreams”. We are still so close to that child that we were a decade or so ago, and we haven’t quite met the fully-mature adult that we’re discovering. No matter where we are in life- married or single, college educated or not, a parent or not, it is so early to tell if this long list of hopes and dreams some of us have is really realistic. I suppose at any age, it really is ‘early’ because we always have life to live, and goals to strive for. That unknown is scary.

Now, before you go thinking I’m all pessimistic- let me explain. I’m pretty much the exact opposite. I’m a sucker for optimism, goals, talking about the goals, then talking about them again while riding a unicorn to the end of the rainbow. You get me?

I recently graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Elementary Education with full intent of teaching children, ‘creating our future society’, and supporting their hopes and dreams by teaching them all I could. After I graduated I wanted to further the scope of work that I could “help” and “touch people’s lives” within—so I applied for a Masters in Rehabilitation Medicine. Shortly after my rejection letter arrived, I had to take my hopes under one arm, and my dreams under another, and have a little talk with both of them.

I have realized that, in many ways, we can go thinking about a long list of hopes, dreams, and aspirations and not think much about how they are attainable and realistic. I think this is a very important step in creating that “list of 100 things to do before you die”. Take that list one step further with a list of “100 things to do before I die, and the steps I’m going to take to make the goals attainable”. Romantic title, right?

The trick to it is: if you’re going to feel satisfaction in reaching those 100 things to do in your life, make darn sure all the little steps you must take to reach the goal feel just as satisfying. For example, if you want to work as a teacher with children; volunteer with children in any capacity you can, talk to teachers, visit classrooms, and learn about what skills are involved in the job. Take steps to ensure you have those skills… then you can take it to your final list when you’re ready to “work as a teacher”.

Personally, I have learned that instead of wanting to have a masters in rehab sciences, the ‘guts’ of what I really want is to work with people, touch their lives, help in making their lives better, and do that as an occupation. Those are some of the little steps to get to what will hopefully end with “have a masters in rehabilitation sciences” stroked off the list. (stay tuned… round 2 of applications are this year, and I hear if I’m accepted in June.)

So bottom line to this scary topic: hopes, dreams, and how to keep track of them? I say set your sights high, set goals that will make you a happy and inspired person, then brake those goals into mini skills and steps that will lead you to your end goal. And my biggest advice is to ENJOY those little steps and skills, feel good about them, and have them satisfy the ‘guts’ of what you want, because that is where enjoying the moment will come in and make the goals a little less scary.

So dudes, grab your unicorn, reach deep down, pick that child-like excitement up from where it just got tackled to the ground, brush it off, and give it a high five. Because as much as reality is very real… dreaming and pushing for what you want has a big place in the grand scheme of things, too.

So tell me, if you feel so inclined: what are the "guts" of your hopes and dreams?