A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

Yesterday, CNN Living re-published an article from Oprah.com about dreams that you should never give up on. I’m quite the dreamer, and have an ever-expanding list that I feel guilty moving away from. Like the dream of producing a Broadway play? Pretty sure my copywriter funds are never going to be able to make that one happen. And learning a second language isn’t going to be happening anytime soon, I could barely handle it in high school and college.

So how do you know what dreams to hold on tightly to and when to let the wind carry them away?

Leigh Newman proposed a list of 9 dreams that you should never give up on. That you should continue to strive and achieve at some capacity. My personal favorite one was “5. The dream of the amazing, life-changing trip you don’t have time for.” 

I’ve always been in awe of traveling, no matter where it was, just seeing a new setting and surrounding myself with complete strangers was always a thrill. And why many of my dreams involve travel. From seeing the sculpture in Dublin with my two eyes and standing underneath the Eiffel Tower with my mom to doing AIDS community work in South Africa and attending a Euro music festival that lasts three-days and requires me to camp.

But after seeing this Dream Never to Give Up On #5, I found myself reverting back to the idea of standing on every continent. To feel like I’ve touched all parts of the world and left an impact, even if it was with my feet.

So continent-exploring is back on the table. Maybe I should just turn all of my dreams into a “Around-the-World” trip to knock out more than a few birds with one stone.

Are there any dreams you find yourself holding on to?

There He Is

Old Man Winter has been MIA here in the Windy City over the past few months. I mean, in Winter 2010, the Puffy Coat came out Dec. 9 and didn’t leave until March. Winter 2011, the coat made its first appearance at the Holiday Party night (Dec. 11), but that’s only because I knew my date would wear a long, black, wool coat and I didn’t want us to match. But since that night, the coat’s hung in the closet waiting for its permanent rotation.

Well look who’s coming off the bench now as Old Man Winter brutally slaps us across the fact with wind and cold temps. Mild winter, it was nice while it lasted. The “feels like 7” bit down there makes me loathe our wind tunnel we’ve got going on between our buildings and the lake. There’s only a few times in the year I despise living by the lake. And those times happen from January-March.

 

The Checks Keep on Happening

This past year has been a crazy year of firsts. Going on my first blind date, my first trapeze class, my first Blackhawks game as a Chicago resident, the first time I read over 50 books in a year, the first time I took a challenge to write a novel, the first time I went rafting and the first time I spontaneously hopped a plane to travel.

But I didn’t stop there. This year also  marks the first time I marched down Michigan Avenue in the Festival of Lights parade as a balloon handler. With Kara, Sarah, Durda and Amanda, we manned the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer balloon. The balloon, as big as a house, was a beast in the wind. Thankfully, we only had a couple of scares while walking down Magnificent Mile, including the reindeer game of getting Rudolph’s head stuck in a tree.

It was a fantastic time with the gals and I’m not sure if we had more fun creating a spontaneous sing-a-long while moving down the street or helping deflate the balloon at the very end. All in all, such a worthy bucket list item.

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