"" Writer's Wanderings: Childhood Dreams

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Childhood Dreams


One of the perks of belonging to a Toastmasters' group is hearing others give speeches about a variety of topics and ideas. At our recent meeting, one of our members gave a speech about following your dreams. It was quite inspirational and I found myself looking less for things to evaluate in her speech and doing more application to my own life with what she was saying. What is it that keeps us from following our dreams?

Our speaker refered to a speech posted on YouTube called The Last Lecture. It was given by a professor, Randy Pausch, at Carnegie Mellon University as part of a series. The professors were to speak as if this was their last lecture and choose words of wisdom and learning they would leave behind. When Dr. Pausch agreed to speak, he didn't realize it would truly be his last lecture. Shortly after, he discovered he had an incurable cancer.

Intrigued, I searched for the lecture and listened to it. He delivered a great message about following your childhood dreams, expounded a bit on his dreams and how he acheived them and then went on to encourage his listeners. It was witty, poignant, and inspirational. He left the speech (and later a book) as a legacy to his children.


I thought back to my childhood dream. I always wanted to be a teacher and then, after meeting a missionary, I combined it to be the dream of becoming a missionary teacher. The teacher part I followed through on in many aspects of my life, in and out of a schoolroom. The missionary part God used more creatively. He didn't place me in a foreign country but he reminds me daily that I need to be a missionary whereever I am.

So what about this writing thing? That came later. You see, dreams don't always need to be from your childhood. God is still at work.

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