Written by Ivy Bates–Peer Mentor

This quarter I have been hearing a lot about dreams. I am talking about dreams for your life, not the kind of dreams you have when you are sleeping. We did an exercise on dreams in one of my classes, then we had Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and LCC had a board in the lobby of the Student Center that students could write their dreams on—it was framed for display. Recently I have been talking to friends and family about my dreams, and to be honest, I am always talking about my dreams because they are my driving force.

This leads me to a question; do you have a dream for your life? Dreams can play a huge role in how we live our lives and the choices we make. Dreams can be large or small, elaborate or simple. Sometimes the foundation of a dream begins when we are young and we daydream about how our lives will be when we are older. For some of us, dreams don’t form until later in life. Maybe you are unhappy with your life or in a bad place and you decide to make a change. A dream can start off as a goal, like getting your degree, and then maybe you start to think about what you’ll do after you get your degree. Maybe you’re the type who wants adventure in your life and you want to travel and see the world. Maybe you’re the type of person who just wants a home to start building a steady foundation for yourself and maybe a future family. No matter where, why, when, or how your dreams began, dreams can be powerful motivators or good reminders of why you are doing what you are doing when things get tough.

A long time ago I was in a bad place and I thought about my situation and where I’d go if I stayed on that path. I thought about the things that I would love to have for my life. I didn’t want to walk into people’s houses anymore and envy them their homes, family, friends, love and stability. I wanted to have that for myself. I also want to travel and see more of this big amazing world. At first my dreams were only dreams, not goals, because I lacked the confidence in myself to make these changes. So, I thought about these things for a long time and then finally decided to make a change. Since making that change almost ten years ago, it has been a long hard road, but my dreams have grown and expanded. I have come a long way and I now truly believe that if I want something bad enough and I’m willing to work for it and not give up when it gets tough, that I can do anything I set my mind and heart on. I have had to adjust my dreams along the way and change the way that I had planned on accomplishing them. I had a back-up plan, thankfully, because I know that sometimes things don’t quite work out the way that you wanted or hoped that they would.

If you don’t have a dream I encourage you to give it some thought. Dreams can be powerful forces in your life that can help propel you forward. Whether you have a dream yet or not, I encourage you to do the exercise that I did in my class: Draw a picture of yourself representing where you are at in your life right now. Right beside that picture, draw yourself living your dream and how you think your life will be then (friends, married or not, home, etc.). What I learned in my class is that to be more successful in accomplishing your dreams you have to SEE IT, BELIEVE IT, and ACT ON IT.