Fly High

Remember when you were itty bitty and you had GREAT BIG DREAMS?  Like becoming a scientist or an astronaut or the first female president?  And then as you get a little older and move into adolescence and the endurance test that is high school and you think, "If I could be anything I want, and I mean ANYTHING, I would be _______."  But then around your senior year of HS it's almost like someone puts lead on your feet and those OUT OF THIS WORLD and AWESOMELY BIG DREAMS just don't seem very realistic anymore and you let those go for something more easily attainable and secure?  But then 14 years after HS graduation (FOURTEEN!  JEEZ!), after your realistic and more easily attainable and most certainly secure "safe dream" is achieved it occurs to you, "Wait a minute!  One time I had a much bigger dream.  What happened to that?!?"  That happened to me.  Today.

My "safe dream" was to be a Music Teacher.  Coming from a school district that did not have a choir, this was a big dream.  But it was attainable, realistic, and safe.  I set off to the unbeatable NWMSU (B-E-A-R-C-A-T-S!), earned my degree in Music Education, and lived my dream first as a part of the Chillicothe (MO) R-II School District and then as a member of the Waukee Community School District.  I LOVED teaching music!  I met incredible people!  I helped hundreds (maybe thousands!) of children!  I made a very comfortable wage!  But this morning as I was getting ready to volunteer at our church's Vacation Bible School the thought came to me, "Hey!  When I was in high school I said I wanted to do ________ and be a _______ and maybe have a _________.  And I believed it was attainable!  What happened to that!?"  The sky was the limit!

So, when is it that we first feel the gravitational pull of reality?  When does it happen that those BIG DREAMS go by the wayside?  Because I once knew I could have that BIG DREAM.  And today I am reminded that I still could.

Why not?  Elphaba did it.  And so can I.  And so can you.

XO