Don’t Give Up on your Dreams!
A note on pursuing your dreams
For a long time, teaching (and becoming bilingual) was my dream. Thinking back to college I remember feeling so driven and purposeful, but also really uncertain. I was majoring in secondary education with an emphasis in Spanish. Not only did I need to learn how to teach adolescents, I had to become fluent in another language. Year after year of college my Spanish progressed, though it felt tedious, frustrating, and hard, I knew if I was patient enough and kept putting in those deposits, I'd reach my goal. After three years of consistent effort I made the decision to live with a family in Spain. Despite getting all As in my Spanish courses, I still doubted if I could really do it. My time abroad would only be four weeks, but it would be Spanish 24/7, and I was going alone. I didn't want to be in a cohort of students where I could easily fall into speaking English.
In the summer of 2007 it was time to put all my work to the test. It was here that I had the most growth, where my jagged pink bar graph became a solid line. Everything changed for the better. I felt confident in my skills and knew I was capable. I returned from Spain, took my teacher licensure exams, and finished out my senior year, landing a teaching job for the next fall before I'd even graduated. Pushing myself into the unknown had resulted in my future success.
Fast forward fifteen years and here I am again, having left my very well known life path to pursue a new dream. My bar graph is jagged and slow growing as I drift untethered to a salaried job that I was good at and very familiar with. In choosing to become an author I put myself into a position to be a novice, spending countless hours writing a book I believe in, but have no idea if any publishing companies will feel the same. It's uncomfortable to pursue a new goal feeling like I don't have all the skills to do it perfectly. But, that's not the point of life. No one has every skill they need right off the bat. You have to be willing to tolerate being uncomfortable, of not being the best or most skilled person in the room. If you truly believe in what you are pursuing, it will be worth tolerating the periods of uncertainty!
Today I challenge you to think of a dream you have, no matter your age or where you are at in life. What's holding you back? Is it a fear of failure? That the undertaking is too great? That it will take too long? That you will be judged by others for changing course? Sit with those questions and ask yourself instead, what if it was the best thing you ever did?
