Dreamers
You may say I’m a dreamer.
But I’m not the only one.
It’s a difficult path to have a dream and to chase after it. And while it’s incredibly fulfilling, it can be lonely. As a dreamer myself, I find that a lot of people don’t get me. They don’t seem to get why I just didn’t get that job in CompSci all those years ago and why I’m writing for basically nothing when I could be making tons of money and probably getting a lot more respect from people who, well, respect people with real jobs.
The decision in my mind was simple.
Becoming a software engineer wasn’t my dream, it was someone else’s.
The response to that decision, however, has been complicated.
Dreamers, we can feel alone sometimes, I think. Watching everyone else get settled in. Watching how their pragmatism affords them comfort and how their acceptance settles them deep into a haven of comfort. It’s beautiful thing to witness, really. I might even say I’m a little envious.
But.
I think dreamers are born to be… well, dreamers. We can’t help ourselves. We can’t help but want to look up into the sky and wonder not only if there is more, but also concoct “out of the box” crazy plans. Sometimes, they work out and a lot of times they don’t. But we don’t care. Because dreaming is who we are. It is our way of… being.
Furthermore, who we want to be seems so outlandish to the majority of people, we think we’re alone.
But, we’re not.
You are not.
Yes, you may think you’re a dreamer, but remember you’re not the only one.
Tagged with: goals
23 Responses to Dreamers
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This made me tear up. Jerk. <3
@Andrea, I think what you’re doing is awesome, you’re an inspiration. You’re crying again, aren’t you?
I get it. I left undergrad wanting to be a fashion designer. I spoke to admissions folks at design schools and they said I was a good candidate. But then I was told that this is not what people do. So I went to law school. And was absolutely miserable. Before completing I left because I was living someone else’s dream.
Looking back I wish that in some ways I was the person I am today back then. Then again I wouldn’t be the person I am now without those experiences so…
Thank you for this post. Lately I have been feeling rather alone. And I heartily applaud you for being the person I wish I had been much earlier in my life.
@Kailyn, Well, my thing was theater school. So, yes, I guess I wish I had been a different person, too. But, at the same time, I don’t. In other words, I know how you feel.
Yes. To all of it. The reactions, the loneliness, the inevitability of who we are born to be.
Yes.
xo
@Miss Britt, Keep dreaming big… you’re an inspiration to all around you.
I totally get this post. Even today after a few guidebooks and current paying gigs, people who’ve known me all my life still ask me why I became a writer and didn’t go into music for a career as expected. I also constantly get pressured to “get a normal job” from people.
But I have to follow my dreams, and when they change, then I allow myself to change with them. Scary…sometimes. Personally fulfilling? Almost always.
I’d rather follow a dream and get it wrong than to wonder if a dream could come true. =)
@Michelle, “I’d rather follow a dream and get it wrong than to wonder if a dream could come true.” That belongs on a T Shirt. Or a tattoo even.
Thanks for putting this into words. I am very much a dreamer, but lack the courage to chase any that do not feel attainable. Often I dream of not being afraid of taking a risk or a leap of faith.
About 5 years before we had kids or even thought about trying to have kids, I bought a onesie with that lyric on it. I knew my child had to wear that in a picture.
@Hockeymandad, There are far worse things than losing or failing, I think. Regret comes to mind.
YES! All of my interests are artsy fartsy and my practical family told me that I couldn’t make a living that way. Had I picked up a camera earlier in life I think my path would have been very different.
@Lisa, I feel that way, too, about writing. For me, I view it the indecision to proceed as a period of gestation, acquiring maturity, and the ability to feel and breathe art in a conscientious and serene way as opposed to how I may have approached it in my youth.
Fellow dreamer, and damned proud of it.:)
as mr. rogers would tell you, you are perfect just the way you are. we might be very different people, but i respect and appreciate you. so very much.
Yup – I can relate. The doing your own thing even though nobody else understands. The marching to your own drummer and being out of step of those surrounding you.
It can be lonely, but we’ve discovered it can also be outrageously rewarding.
Nancy
http://www.familyonbikes.org
Thank you. I really needed to read something like this.
This post is lovely.
I love you, fellow dreamer.
OMG. I hear this. Instead of majoring in English or Literature and then getting a completely useless but oh-so-joyous MFA in writing, I chose to major in Advertising. I hate business. I just love to write. And take pictures. I love to create and wasn’t happy until I honored that.
I still want to write more.
I once was an English major. That wasn’t practical enough, so I added an honors major in Anthropology. Which wasn’t practical enough, so I went into public health. And I am a cliche, because I not only hated it, but I learned nothing.
But I think I have renegade blood, like you, because even a pragmatic degree meant to send me to a grey office in a government building, couldn’t keep me away from a, er, path less wandered.
I began to seek the normal, asking myself why I hadn’t done something corporate. I’m smart enough, strong enough, outspoken enough. more than enough.
A new religion, a new marriage, a job in a grey government hospital and a stint below the poverty line later, I’m finally writing again after five years.
five years without dreaming.
And I had an epiphany of sorts…I realized last week, while I was sitting in an Amos Lee concert: no part of me ever wants to be in the audience again. Because haven’t you noticed? the artist is very very different than the patron.
So obviously, again, thank you Faiqa, for illuminating a feeling, and putting it right there where I can hold it.
Somebody hand this woman a fat book deal.
@Kate, I should also say that when I say I began to seek the normal, it was out of insecurity and loneliness. I never finished that thought. And that seeking of what wasn’t for me led me to stop writing, for five years. There. I think that’s a complete thought.
I’m more of a snorer.
I want to be there when your dreams become reality.
You mentioned one word in this post that often gets in the way of my dreams: comfort. Sometimes, it’s easy to be at a comfortable place, even when that place isn’t always 100% comfortable. Odd how that works.