There is a point in all of our lives where we aspire to be great, to do something big or to be famous beyond all belief. Call it delusions of grandeur, wishful thinking or lofty goals…but we all go through it.

I dreamed a lot…ages ago, when I was able to run like the wind, shake off the flu with ease and be pain free.  I had all these dreams…being a rock star, the hero that saved Earth from invading aliens, a star athlete, you know the usual stuff.  But there was one particular dream that I am most grateful for and that was to be a writer of cards.

You know what I’m talking about…birthday cards, wedding cards, anniversary cards, any type that you’d find in a Hallmark store.  That was my foray into writing.

You see, at that time I was extremely “girl crazy”…you would be too if you came from a Catholic all boys school like I did.  When I got into college and started to mingle with the hordes of beautiful women on the college campus, I decided that whenever one of my lady friends had a birthday I would give them the gift of poetry.

My type of poetry didn’t contain eloquent verses; it wasn’t even close to anything magnanimous, it was more of the rhyming sort.  The kind that you would find when you opened up a “Hallmark” card.  I would pine away at the right words to use to convey how I felt and would take pen to paper soon after.  Here’s an example:

“Some write songs of love old and new,

others write books of love so grand and true

But songs and books cannot describe,

the real true meaning of love…

A love that comes from inside

From within the heart a certain feeling grows

it cannot be hid for through your action it shows

It’s seen in the eyes of both the young and old

It’s shown through their smile that’s pure and gold

If everyone had one wish they’d probably say,

Love stay with me forever, never go away.”

Yeah it’s cheesy but it helped me on my path to becoming a writer…which was something that I subconsciously dreamt about when I was writing all those weird short stories in my high school English classes.  It was a start and like all dreams, you have to start somewhere.  Even if it seems illogical at the time, you have to try.

My whole point that I’m trying to get at is that you truly can’t be afraid to dream.  Failure is not an option but merely an obstacle that you’ll overcome.  Even if it seems impossible, unattainable or just plain crazy.  If that’s what you want then strive to get there at all costs.

I’m a screenwriter and that’s probably one of the most unattainable dream that one could aspire to be…but I stuck with it.  It took me almost seventeen plus years to get representation but I achieved it…and I’ll go another seventeen years more to try and sell one of my scripts.  Persistence and patience are the key ingredients to achieving one’s dream…add a dash of luck to the mix as well.

So dream away and dare to be great.