Dreams

 

Rick brought back a scrapbook from his daughter's home in Texas. It contained newspaper clippings of his early golf days. In one he was said to be among the best 150 junior golfers world wide. 

He selected his university around golf and he dreamed of being a pro. 

Life happened. He married and settled into the ordinary American life of building a career to have money to acquire things that you are suppose to want or because the neighbors want. He even wanted some of them himself, but it didn't have to be an either/or.  

More than once he expressed that he wished he had least tried to become a pro golfer. If he had failed, at least he would know if he could have done it.

As for his career, he was/is successful within his industry. In his retirement years, he has been able to go back to golf, hickory golf, continuing his earlier passion. A good thing he didn't die before returning to his first love.

From a young age I dreamed of being a writer and living in Europe. I thought I was on my way my ex-husband was assigned to an Army band in Stuttgart. His tour ended and I found myself stuck back in my hometown.

As a child I thought you had to get married, got your hair short, have a station wagon to drive your kids around and have a white washer and dryer. And in my family vote Republican and like Ike. Buy a house, have two cars, the American dream. For me it seemed like a bad dream.

My writing with a few jigs and jags was more corporate until my 40s when I started writing fiction. The corporate years weren't totally wasted. Corporate helped me give my daughter a start in life. Some of it was fun. But I think of the hundreds of thousands of hours when it was filled with various stupidities of others, of subjecting myself to things I didn't want to do even if I did them well. I will never get that time back. 

I did become a writer www.dlnelsonwriter.com. I continue to write. Because of my corporate skills, I was able to move to Europe. I will always wonder if I could have been a better writer had I not gone corporate. There are no instant replays.

I meet so many adults who say, "I wanted to be a (fill in the blank) but..."

I find that so, so sad. 

We have one life. We also need to make money to live. But what price are willing to pay to have the things society tell us we should have?