Daughter is one step closer to achieving her dreams: being a dirt track race car driver! A year ago, she bought a race car. She stripped it down and rebuilt it to be the car she wants it to be. Last Sunday she put the car on the track for the first time! She did pretty well, all things considered. And I wasn't even nervous...until she spun. Hubby had warned me that I could not go running down on the track if she hit the wall. Excuse me? I'm her mother! I can do what I need to do! Not that running on the track would be a smart move...
She called me when she got back to her pit. Thinking her spin may have scared her, I asked if she was going back out on the track. "Heck yeah!" she answered - without a hint of hesitation. Sigh. So much for my secret hope that she would hate it and pick a safer dream...
With each set of practice laps, she went a little faster. She's still very slow compared to experienced drivers, and she's got a long way to go. But she's 20 years old and she's achieving her dreams, one step at a time. She may drive me a little nuts, but I'm very proud of her!
Sitting on the other side of the fence, I'm way over 20 and well on my way to 50. I still haven't accomplished my own dreams. I've wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I started out writing poems and stories about animals when I was young. In my teens, I decided I wanted to be a romance writer. I devoured Harlequin romances, and my imagination was pretty active. But my priorities were different, and I put my dream on the back burner. I'm not sure it was a conscious decision. I went to college, worked full-time, got married, and started a family. Along the way, I played at being a writer. I joined writers groups, took some writing classes, and thought about writing. I even completed a rough draft of a book. But my family was my first priority.
Now that Daughter is grown (although not out on her own), and Son is almost 16, I find that they don't require as much of my time as they did when they were younger. They still demand their fair share of my attention, but it's easier to spend my down-time writing than it used to be.
When I was about Daughter's age, I bought a t-shirt that became my personal theme. It was decorated with a Boynton character and it said:
"Someday you'll be able to say you knew me before I was rich and famous."
Well, it's not "someday" yet. To Hubby's dismay, I am not rich. And the thought of being famous is not as exciting as it used to be. I still WANT to be a romance writer, and I'm still working to achieve my dreams. I hope I can make as much progress in the next year as Daughter has made in the past year!
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