The Life You Had In Mind

You wake up one morning and you realize this isn't the life you had in mind. This isn't the life you had all planned out thirty years ago. This isn't what you imagined for yourself. You had dreams, and aspirations, but what happened to those dreams? Did you give in to the ways of the world, to the ways of life, and to the unsaid rules put upon us. You were going to be a rock star, or a lawyer, or even maybe an astronaut. Maybe you wanted to be the first female president, and break all the limitations. You never thought you'd be a stay home mother, with three children and a husband who's never home to help out. Or maybe you're a father working two jobs, just barely able to make ends meet, and you're never home to see your children, who are growing up so fast.
    But maybe you've achieved your dreams, but now your unhappy because it isn't what you thought it would be. Now you wish you were a stay home mother, who was actually home to see her children grow up with dreams of their own. Or maybe you wish you were the father who had time to play catch with his son in the back yard, but instead you're the one who's never home because work is more important. Sure you provide enough for your family to live happily, but are they really happy?
    Henry David Thoreau once said, "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours." It takes courage to pursue your dreams, because failure is always present. But what would you rather live with, the fact that you went after your dreams and failed, or the fact that you gave up and now deal with the unfailing question of "what if I had only tried?" Regret is not easy to live with, but success is. Dreams are what keeps a man alive. John Barrymore once said, "A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams."
    But maybe when you wake up you know there's still time to achieve your dream, because your dream is still alive. Dreams are like hope, because a life without hope just isn't worth living, and a life without dreams has no where to go.