Wanted: Dreamers
A young friend of ours in his 20s was accepted into law school today. I was just overjoyed at this news. He worked hard studying for his LSATs and wrote heartfelt essays for his application. It reminded me of the day I got my grad school acceptance letters. I remember thinking, “Life just changed for me. Five minutes ago my future was different. I’m on a new path.” It was among the most exciting days of my life.
One of the joys of being middle-aged is the ability to cheer on young people who are unsure of themselves or their talents. Having spent a lot of my youth being underestimated by many, I’ve decided that I’m going to make a big fuss over anyone and everyone who is working toward a dream. Assuming that the dream is not to rob a bank or become a drug kingpin, I can look back and remember the people who cheered me on and the ones who questioned the wisdom of changing careers, putting my career on hold to care for a sick family member, starting a new hobby or renovating an old house. Because here’s the deal: if you fail at something, you learn something and that’s a positive. The worst thing in life is not failure. It’s being too afraid to dive in.
yes. it's my real name. 
Thank you for saying this. Maybe I’m still working on figuring out what my dream is, but at least I know that somewhere out there, there is someone on my team.
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This comes at a time when I am about to make a HUGE change in life… from a very nice paycheck in a large respectable healthcare organization, to supporting my husband’s dream of being a small business owner… which gives me an opportunity to have a role in that business and in developing this as a family business, along with being able to follow my own dream of growing my longarm quilting business, and more importantly, being around more for my kids. (I’ve never had the opportunity to work less than full time, and typically have more than one job.) When this change is announced in a couple of weeks, I know many will “question the wisdom” of it, as you put it. I have several key friends and family members who have been instrumental in supporting me in this “risk”… with whom I would not have had the confidence to continue. I appreciate your post and the comment above – I agree, it’s nice to know we have people in our corner – Thank you, Weeks.
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