When I was young, I told everyone for years that I wanted to be an astronaut. I said I would study astronomy and work at NASA and fly in rockets and cool stuff like that. I said all this and fully believed it, even though I was marginal at math and science bored me to tears. No one ever told me that I couldn’t do it, but surely my teachers and parents must have been thinking that it was a rather ridiculous quest for my future. Ah, to be young again and to wallow in such self-belief! Reflecting on this made me think about something. At what point did we grow up and start talking ourselves right out of our dreams?

I think most folks would say that “real life” took over. Our “dreams” were replaced by bills or early parenthood or all the “adulting” we were expected to do the day after we turn 18. Others might attribute it to lack of money for lessons, or a parent who told them their dream was unachievable or asinine. And still others would blame a lack of belief in themselves, or all out fear of failure. Whatever the reason, too many of us leave our inner most desires behind only to be left with the yearning of “what if.”