Dreams...

Yesterday I sat in the stands of McCarthey Athletic Center and watched my best friend graduate with a Master's degree in School Counseling. As she marched in with her counseling classmates I experienced a sense of pride for her accomplishment, thanksgiving that I had already conquered my own master's program, and a moment of contemplation over the possibility of returning to school at some point in the future (insanity, I know). For a moment I experienced a flashback to my own Master's graduation five years ago-I don't remember much about the ceremony itself, but I do recall walking across the stage to receive my diploma and feeling an overwhelming sense of hope and possibility. I can only imagine that Erin felt something similar as she shook the hand of the Gonzaga president and received her diploma case. If nothing else, I am certain that she had quite a lot of time to ponder the future as this was not a particularly short ceremony.

When the student speaker stepped up to the microphone and opened his mouth I immediately thought, "What a goob (my term of endearment for my goober of a brother)" and spent the next several minutes shifting uncomfortably in my chair. At some point, however, the goob caught my attention. He spoke about the importance of dreams and having the fortitude to work tirelessly toward accomplishing them. Hmmm... He reminded us how many dreams we had as children. He asked us to consider what happened to those dreams. Do they just disappear as we reach adulthood? Or do we simply find a way to convince ourselves how stupid we were at age ________(fill in the blank here). How many adults actually, "follow their dreams"? What do I aspire to and dream about now?

A long time ago I decided to become a teacher. I think I have my fifth grade teacher to thank for that. While several other options were considered and dismissed, teaching stuck. Back then I knew how to make a plan and see it through. I knew how to set goals and follow the steps necessary to get where I wanted to go. Do I still have this gumption? Perhaps, but for awhile I felt that I had lost the passion of one who chases their dreams. A year ago I began dreaming about teaching abroad. In the last few months the pieces have come together and it's happening. Though my dream sequence never included Korea, I think God intervened on my behalf and so I will continue on this path for the next two years to see it through. Then what? For a girl who is an expert planner, I hadn't a clue. Since yesterday's small epiphany many ideas have started to swim around in my already crowded head. The more I ponder, the longer the list grows, but here's what my heart has revealed thus far: MUCH more travel--I have started to dream about seeing places I had once never considered, perhaps a return to school to pursue a PhD in education or possibly a path towards counseling, attending a summer session on Jane Austen at Oxford, and, if all goes well during my two years in Korea, I hope to continue my teaching career abroad somewhere in Europe. Over time I'm certain that a shift will happen in my head where some of these "pipe dreams" will develop into goals and the planner inside of me will devise the steps necessary to make them happen. All in good time... For now I am content to continue dreaming, doing, and following where God leads me.