Week 2 It would be a shame to wander aimlessly through a journey we will all take only once. ~ Jeff Sandefer

 
My second week of classes: The reading assignments have been enlightening. I copied and pasted so many parts I liked that I have too many and now must choose the ones that really resonate. As part of this week's assignment I must respond to these questions:
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• Why do you think Randy Pausch was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams? www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/Randy/pauschlastlecturetranscript.pdf

 
Randy had dreams that he actively sought. He trained for and became educated in a field of study that he truly cared about. He happened to be in the right time at the right place and was able to capitalize on situations. It may look like luck, or happenstance but as we are reminded repeatedly . . . there are no coincidences.

• Do you feel that dreaming is important? Why or why not?

 
Dreaming is the only way any innovation ever comes about. Thinking about it dreaming and visualizing with their double meanings shows how very real God’s influence can be. Through the Holy Spirit many people have indeed been inspired by having actual visions of the very thing they were desiring in order to solve some issue they may have been pondering upon.

• Discuss at least one of your childhood dreams. Explain why you believe you can or cannot achieve this dream.

 
When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up my first answer was a mother. I married young at 19 and proceeded to have children for the next 20 years. I have eight children, I accomplished my dream. Had I been unable to have children I would have adopted at least as many…my goal was to have ten. I had thought being a hairdresser would be fun, but as I entered my teens I dropped that and wanted to own an art and crafts store. I cannot achieve this goal now because it is no longer my passion. I do not have the energy to want to count inventory. It does not sound fun at all.  Without desire it does not matter how much capital one has, eventually the business will fail…unless placed in competent and capable hands.
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As for my reading I liked the basic questions posed by Jeff Sandefer in Stars and Stepping Stones, he asks:
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“What is important to you? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? What do you want to have accomplished by the time you are seventy?”

So, obviously, parenthood was number one; but, ask my kids and the question - Why do you get out of bed in the morning? -  makes my claim ring false. I trained my children early on to take care of themselves and each other so that only now when I have to take my daughter to her early morning seminary class do I suffer the indignity of getting out of bed before 8 am. Sleep in the morning is important to me as I sit here after midnight writing and cringing knowing I have to rise at 6:30.

Eight years ago I found my passion for writing. I fell asleep with a story in my head, dreamed it all night and woke to write sometimes not even eating breakfast or lunch. I wrote four novels in six weeks.

I love the story world I created and now the thing I want to achieve before I am seventy is to have the series published.
Continuing from the theme offered by Sandefer and highlighted in my previous post he says:

The objective is not to craft a perfect plan—life and circumstances change too much for that. You can, however, chart a course toward a meaningful star, set philosophical guardrails to mark the path, and lay steppingstones to mark each step in the right direction. After all, it would be a shame to wander aimlessly through a journey we will all take only once.

I do love that life is a journey; that we are in our very own quest for actualization to make ourselves and our dreams real. That is why I love writing - it makes the dreams within my head more concrete when I can share them with others.

​So as they say - Dare to dream - for it is only in the dreaming that you will ever become the "you" you were meant to be.