The Eternal Dream Weaver

I'm going to get to today's Thursday Diary entry in a moment, but before I do, I want to offer up a brief note regarding the passing of a legend in daytime television.

Yesterday morning, the world said goodbye to actress Jeanne Cooper, who died at the age of 84 after being in intensive care over the last few weeks. Most of you probably know her best as Katherine Chancellor from the long running series “The Young and the Restless”. For nearly 40 years, she was a mainstay on that serial, and many of us grew up watching her on television over the years, whether we were soap opera fans or not.

Her passing is a true loss to the daytime community, and she will be forever missed. Sympathies go out to her children, Corbin, Caren, and Collin, as well as the many family members, friends, and co-workers who were lucky enough to have known her.

Okay...so for today's Thursday Diary entry, I'm going to be talking a little bit about dreams. And one could say that Jeanne Cooper completely lived her dream. She had a career that lasted longer than the average person, she loved what she did, and she was rewarded with at least a couple of Daytime Emmy Awards for her contributions to the soap opera genre.

In Jeanne's case, she pursued and lived her dream. And, that's what this blog entry is all about. Dreams. But, while Jeanne's dream of becoming an actress was achieved...my initial dream changed along the way. Lemme explain.

May 9, 2013

I don't care what people say. Everyone has dreams.

We all have the desire to do extraordinary things with our lives, and we all have the need to do something in the world that will make others remember your name. Maybe you want to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Maybe you want to discover a cure for a deadly disease. Or, maybe you simply want to bring a child into the world so that you can enjoy being a mom or a dad. Really, whatever your dreams are in this world, I hope that all of you go for them.

But while we're on the subject of dreams, I should note that sometimes dreams can change as we get older. And, believe me, it's perfectly normal. After all, just because our dream might be to own every teddy bear in the world at the age of five might may not be feasible to have at the age of forty-five!

This is the story of how my dreams have changed over the course of my lifetime.

By now, I'm sure that most of you know what my current dream is. After all, I wouldn't have kept a blog going for almost two years running if I didn't have some passion for it. For as long as I can remember, I've always had a keen interest in writing, but it's only been within the last couple of years that I thought about making it the ultimate career goal.

Over the years, my dreams prior to becoming a world famous writer were quite different. Some of the dreams I had were kind of linked to my current dream, while others were completely different.

So, sit back and stay tuned. You're about to get a little bit more insight into my life and times, and you'll also learn why some dreams that I had were meant to be left unfulfilled.

DREAM #1 – To be a doctor.

Believe it or not, there was once a time in which I wanted to pursue a career in medicine or at the very least in the pharmaceutical industry. I think that may have been spawned by watching one too many episodes of the Cosby Show, where Cliff Huxtable made a really decent living for himself as a doctor.

But it was also right around that age that I began to discover that I have a very low tolerance for blood and gore. It actually took me about a season and a half before I actually could sit down and watch a full episode of CSI because the autopsy scenes and gory murder re-enactments made me physically feel sick to my stomach. These days, I'm more or less desensitized to gory images on television and in film, but I know that I couldn't stomach performing operations on people. So, that was one dream that was completely dashed.

DREAM #2 – To be a teacher.

Actually, this is a dream that is kind of still in the maybe pile, though admittedly at this time, I am not in the frame of mind to actively pursue it. I think my dream of becoming a teacher was born right around my elementary school days. I always used to enjoy playing school with my older sibs, as well as inside the classroom on indoor recesses. I suppose that as I grew older, my desire to become a teacher was fueled solely on making the classroom a better place for a child to learn. I had quite a few teachers that seemed to be completely ill-equipped to handle certain problems that students had in the class, and I was determined to become a teacher so I could make a difference in the lives of children. I even did a brief volunteering stint at my old elementary school between 2003-2004, which taught me a lot about how challenging it could be to teach a class of 25 or more students.

To be honest with you, the only reason why I have my dream of being a teacher on the backburner instead of ditching it entirely is because I still believe that I could find a way to make it happen. It just might not be in the setting of a public school classroom. I have the firm belief that everyone has the ability to teach others a variety of skills in any setting, and maybe I have that ability as well. I just haven't found it yet.

DREAM #3: To become the Prime Minister of Canada.

This was a rather lofty goal that I had in my mind when I was around thirteen years old. A lofty goal that I lost interest in very quickly. Let's just say that I am definitely not the right person to run an entire country, nor do I believe in the whole idea of negative campaign ads. I'd rather hear more about what candidates will actually do.

In fact, I'll offer up a confession. Whenever I go out to vote in an election, I purposely vote for the candidate who has the smallest smear campaign.

Anyway, what was I talking about again? Oh, yeah...dreams.

DREAM #4 – To become the next Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, or Peter Jennings.

Ah, now this is an interesting one. My dream of going into a career in journalism was born approximately fifteen years ago, when I was sixteen, seventeen. My high school was one that had almost every possible extracurricular activity known to man. Math Club, Key Club, heck, there was probably a club about clubs for all I knew! The only thing my school lacked was a student run newspaper, which sucked because that may very well have been the only activity that I would have been passionate enough to take part in.

When I went away to school, and the opportunity came to write for a campus newspaper, I immediately jumped at the chance. I even made communications my major in university! That's how passionate I was about becoming a journalist.

Unfortunately, if you click here, you'll see that my dream kind of hit a roadblock. It was a combination of being screwed over by the organization that ran the student newspaper, as well as not meeting the required grades to stay in my program. In my case, the drive was there, but not the timing.

It's just as well, though. I still have some people telling me that I could have a great career as a journalist, and that I should pursue it, but the more that I think about it, I don't think I want it as bad as I initially did. Being a journalist does allow you to travel the world...but in a lot of cases, you're visiting places affected by war, or natural disaster, or something else that is devastating. Not exactly something that I would be emotionally equipped to handle. I know that to some extent, journalists are supposed to remain impartial at all times, and that would be absolutely difficult for me to do, as I do have some rather strong opinions about a lot of topics. I would find it extremely difficult to not become emotionally attached to heartbreaking stories. Some reporters have the robotic personalities to make a career out of sharing the news, but I can't be that bland.

And, don't even get me started on my opinions regarding the paparazzi. You really don't want me to blow up in this blog, do you?

(Well, okay, maybe some of you do. Today won't be the day though.)

Truth be told, I think I would be a better columnist than a news reporter.

And, that leads to my current dream of being a writer. I love expressing my thoughts in a way that captivates people, makes people laugh, cry, or think about things they never considered before. I get a high out of being able to share my innermost thoughts through words, and I am better at expressing myself through pen and paper than I am with my tongue. And, at some point, I do want to have a career doing what I love.

At this point, I'm not exactly sure how I can bring my love of writing into the Garden Centre area...but I suppose I can build my vocabulary of words used to describe flowers...if ever the opportunity does arise.

I suppose in some way, my love for writing has formed the base for all of the other dreams that I had over the years. In order to be a great journalist, you have to write the articles published in the paper, or the copy notes that you read off at the anchor desk. In order to be a great teacher, you have to have a good grasp of the English (or whatever language you speak) in order to do the best possible job educating students. While the ability to write isn't really necessary to become a doctor, I would imagine that some instances of writing are needed if you're putting together a medical presentation or a seminar. And, let's face it...how can you be a politician if you can't write a decent speech whenever the need arises?

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that we all have dreams...and sometimes the dreams change. But, if you have a solid base on which all your dreams are born from, then keep chasing those rainbows and hold on to those dreams. Who knows? Maybe a dream that you didn't know you had will come true!