Ever since I was a child, I DREAMED of working in NYC

When I was accepted at MIT, I knew I was getting closer and closer to a BIG city job

and I was SOOOO happy

When I didn’t understand gyroscopes…

And had to stay up doing problem sets…

I would take a break, sit out in the courtyard, and gaze out at the

Prudential…

“I will end up at the TOP of that someday,” I thought

I landed an internship at a big firm in NYC

And it was…. COMPETITIVE

There was the SCARY BOSS, the TERRIBLE HOURS,

And the standard corporate bureaucracy

After all, this was my DREAM

When I got the offer to come back full-time, I still signed it

the Prudential became surprisingly SMALL

But when I got back on campus,

suffocatingly LARGE

And New York had become

I realized that as a CHILD, they had taught me to DREAM

But I had defined my dream as a tangible OBJECT

So that once I had jumped over the Prudential

and landed in NYC

I had NOTHING after that

Having left MIT and Boston behind, I realized that I was just one more dinosaur following behind a

line of many

And that, as they always say

Life really is an un-ending stream of moving goal posts

But I thought to myself, “It is DANGEROUS to settle”

I don’t want to wake up when I’m older wishing that I had run after my dreams just a

LITTLE BIT harder

Perhaps the secret is not to define my DREAMS as objects, but rather as PRINCIPLES that guide

my decisions

Instead of thinking, “I want to be a ballerina”

I should dream that I can influence people’s lives with my work

Instead of wanting to be on TOP

I should focus on doing what I LOVE

After all, once you reach the TOP

There is always someone right there to meet you, so the top that you pictured in your mind really

doesn’t exist

That doesn’t mean that I stop DREAMING

It just means that I live loving the PRESENT, while working towards the FUTURE

After all, my DREAMS are an extension of my personality

And if that’s true, what would I be without them?

So I’m going to keep DREAMING

As time passes, I CHANGE

And so do my DREAMS

Yes, I’m a girl, but how else do I show an aging dinosaur?

But the PRINCIPLES and AMBITIONS that have guided my life won’t change

So I’ll keep DREAMING

And I hope you’ll keep DREAMING too

Thanks for reading

Willow’s Wednesday Musings

Image from essitolling.wordpress.com