Dreaming Big

Webster’s Dic­tio­nary defines a dream as:

1) a series of thoughts, images, or emo­tions occur­ring dur­ing sleep

2)an expe­ri­ence of wak­ing life hav­ing the char­ac­ter­is­tics of a dream

3) some­thing notable for its beauty, excel­lence, or enjoy­able quality

4) a strongly desired goal or purpose

Most of us have had dreams in our life both in the sleep­ing sense and the strongly desired goal.  Some peo­ple can even be char­ac­ter­ized as “dream­ers”- peo­ple whose visions and goals are so high that they seem unat­tain­able.  Some reach their aspi­ra­tions, some do not.

For me, hav­ing a dream is an impor­tant part of who I am.  I have always set goals– some of them short term, some of them lofty.  I come from a fam­ily of dream­ers.  My great grand­par­ents dreamed of  escap­ing the night­mare that awaited them as Jews in Italy.  My grand­fa­ther dreamed of build­ing his own sail­boat.  My grand­mother dreamed of writ­ing a mem­oir.  My mom (Cara Mamma the Elder) dreams of lead­ing groups of peo­ple on cook­ing tours through Italy.  My dad (Papi the Brain) dreams of being a con­duc­tor at the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Opera House or using his boat to cross the Atlantic Ocean (These are the dreams that I think my par­ents have..I could be wrong. Oh wait, I am rarely wrong.) 

My dreams… I dreamed as a young girl of becom­ing a news reporter (I would still love this) or an astro­naut (hard to do when sci­ence is not your forte’) –and then of becom­ing a teacher (phew, I  was able to do this one!).  I dreamed later on about becom­ing a mom (a bit chal­leng­ing, but I can check the done box there too).  I dreamed of run­ning a marathon (also chal­leng­ing– and also done).

The key to each of those dreams was fam­ily, love, and pas­sion. My grandmother’s mem­oir could not have been pub­lished had it not been for the love of her fam­ily.  My dream of run­ning a marathon would not have come true had it not been for the encour­ag­ing voice of Cara Mamma the Elder or Papi the Brain as I recounted the mis­er­able train­ing runs round and round a lake, in tears.

The key to a dream I think is the feel­ing that despite all obsta­cles, you can be suc­cess­ful.  There are so many poten­tial road blocks on the path to any dream: fam­ily, finances, skills, you name.…it can be a lit­tle bump or a huge moun­tain to over­come.  For me, the key to my dreams has been my fam­ily and friends.  Some­times a dream can be accom­plished with­out the help of oth­ers, but in many (and I would argue) most cases, lofty dreams require the sup­port of those around you.  You need a shoul­der to cry on when things are not going your way, or a sound­ing board to prob­lem solve with.

I was lucky to have every­thing I needed around me to help me reach my goals.  In the novel, Girl in Trans­la­tion by Jean Kwok, Kim­berly and her mom had a dream of com­ing to Amer­ica to cre­ate a bet­ter life, but were faced with obsta­cles of fam­ily, lan­guage, and finances.  Kimberly’s dreams at first were not encour­aged or nur­tured by some, but step by step, she made her way.  The obsta­cles that Kim­berly and her mom faced reminded me of the bumps in my road of life.  I am a strong believer in the idea that things hap­pen for a rea­son, so maybe the obsta­cles are designed to make us want our dream even more.  Maybe obsta­cles help dis­tin­guish between dreams that are real and dreams that are more about fan­ci­ful wishes.  Maybe, but in all hon­esty, cry­ing as I cir­cled the lake on those early Sun­day morn­ings, did not feel all that good.  I am not sure that the tears made me stronger.  What made me stronger was me.  My belief in myself pro­pelled me to go back each Sun­day. Some­times, the answer is simple.

As Kwok writes, it is as sim­ple as tak­ing “a deep breath” and tak­ing the step.

What is your dream?  What obsta­cles do you face?

I received Girl in Trans­la­tion from the Sil­i­con Val­ley Mom’s Blog Book Club.