What Happens When You Realise Your Dream? (Part 1)
Ten years ago, I moved to Rome, Italy. It was, at the time, the realisation of a dream. It wasn’t a long held dream, mind you, rather, one that had insinuated itself into my consciousness less than two years earlier.
Until 2009, I wasn’t even aware of having a dream. I was in awe of people who aspired to do or be something big – the risk-takers and idealists, the passionistas and overachievers. I was never one of them.
By my mid-30s, I felt I had already achieved the greatest thing I would ever do with my life, and that was buying my apartment in Sydney’s inner west seven years earlier.
Then, unexpectedly, in 2009, a tiny glimmer of an idea was implanted into my brain.
I had dinner with an old acquaintance, a brilliant and respected interior designer. She told me about her dream of starting a design blog where she could explore and share her love of design. Her eyes shone as she fantasised about one day giving up her day job and live off her passion.
I listened to her in wonderment, captivated by her excitement, her determination, and her conviction that anything was possible. I confessed my envy of her, my admiration for her optimism, and my embarrassment at not being blessed with the same lust for life.
“I wish I had a dream,” I said.
“That’s crap!” she said. “Everyone has a dream!”
I thought about it for a moment, searching deep within for some kind of fantasy I may have unwittingly harboured. But I came up blank. I’ve always been too levelheaded for dreams; a realist to a fault.
She insisted. “There must be something you have always wanted.”
“The only thing I’ve ever really wanted is to live in Italy. But I don’t know if that’s the same as having a dream. In any case, it’s impossible now.”
As I listed the reasons why it was impossible – a mortgage, a career, a solid social network, aging parents (one with dementia), my age – she rejected each one.
“Excuses!”
When we parted that evening, she urged me to give serious consideration to making my “dream” a reality. But I hardly gave it a second thought.
Not for at least another year.
…to be continued.