Dreamer

If dreaming was an Olympic sport, I am pretty sure you would see my name listed for those representing the United States in 2012. What can I say? I am a completely devoted dreamer. Your reading the work of a girl who has a list of things to accomplish before she turns twenty, an annotated map representing everywhere she would like travel to, and her acceptance speech prepared for when she is awarded her Nobel Peace Prize. Okay woah, now I am starting to sound conceited, sorry I got a little ahead of myself, :] but this is what I do, dream.

Ever since I can remember I have thought this way, constantly dreaming and coming up with new achievements I could see myself pursuing in a perfect world. Whenever I dared to dream, I would always keep my dream world and reality separate. It just seemed natural to do so; I mean who wants the harshness of reality interfering in a world where anything is possible? However, as my dreams have become bigger and I have grown older I have come to realize how wrong I was to keep these worlds separate.

Everyone has dreams, but we don’t always see everyone pursuing these dreams.  It is so easy to blame our lost dreams and unachieved goals on somebody else. It is so easy to give up on a dream because it seems too hard or even impossible to achieve. However, let me remind you that every dream is hard. If dreams were easy to achieve, than there would no point in having them, what makes a dream so special and the accomplishment so rewarding lies in the extreme difficulty and the hard work it takes to achieve it. The celebrities we aspire to be like, the historical figures we read about in text books and even our everyday heroes are so admirable to us because they got to the point they are at now, with a dream. They took their dream and made it real. Our role models have taught us, that it all starts with a dream that you run with.

So what’s stopping you? Take your dream and start moving. Okay, okay, I know it’s easier said than done but I think it so important, as a society that we start taking a step to make a change. The only thing holding us back is fear. So take fear out of the equation. Today, take one step, the smallest baby step, to your wildest dream and see where it takes you. And even if it does not get you as far as you hoped, you know that you tried and you know that you accomplished something. I know, personally, I get nervous to pursue something because I have words like “can’t” in my vocabulary. I know it sounds totally ridiculous and I am aware I am the queen of cheesiness, but I think that making an effort, even if it gets you nowhere, is better than nothing. Who knows you might be the next president or the girl who is known for finding the cure to the common cold, or the next hottest male movie star? You would never know unless you took that vision out of the dream world and put it to work in reality.

From Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother to Tinkerbelle, the most famous fairy out there, Walt Disney has taught us that a little pixie dust goes along way. Unfortunately in life, we have yet to find that the powder from a candy pixie stick creates the same magic. Although it is not in powder form, I have recently found a comparable substitute and that is taking action. If you think this is all crazy then maybe Disney should start putting warning labels on their movies; but I see excessive dreaming as a good thing, something that inspires others and oneself. So I challenge you to go out there, and take the first step to making your wildest, craziest, most ridiculous dream come true. Even if by doing so, you get lost or the end result is not what you had hoped…that’s okay, you tried and hey, it may send you down a path or make you think in ways you never dared to before. But this all starts with a step. A step that I really think you should take. Trust me, it will be worth it.

Think it, dream it, do it.

Living for Today

There is a new Zantac commercial that I am finding so relatable to my life right now. Zantac, the popular heartburn medication, has just released this new ad ( or maybe it’s not new, new to me :)) which shows a business woman going through her day,  just living her life. The viewer can see that this woman has a regulated work schedule, she easily completes tasks and goes through the motions of her tasks. However, she then eats a burrito and has heartburn, this heartburn throws off her cookie cutter schedule, until she takes Zantac. After taking the curing medicine she can then return to work productively.

Before I go any further, let me reassure you, I am not blogging about heartburn or endorsing Zantac, it is more the idea and theme of the commercial, than the ad itself that I am interested in. I have only seen it a couple of times, but the more I do, the more I learn from it. Although I don’t believe the creators of this ad had this deeper intention, they certainly got me thinking.

Sometimes, I feel like I live my life on “autopilot”; I just go through the motions of my day without really thinking about what I am doing, especially in the winter. Being a sun worshiper, it’s hard especially for me to get motivated with the zero degree wind chill and snow on the ground. Once I get into this routine, it is so hard to break. Since I have been on school vacation, I especially feel I have been going through the tasks of my day without really thinking about what I am doing, just like the woman in the commercial. I hate this feeling. Although I always try to stop myself, it gets hard when an autopilot lifestyle gets normal, however, after this past Monday I have been doing everything I can to take away this habit.

A few days ago, I watched one of my closest friends get into a car accident (I have permission from her to blog about this of course :)). Although the accident was terrifying, she and the other driver were both very safe and although there was some damage to the car, everyone involved was shaken up more than anything else. As I sat there, pulled over on the side of the road, watching the two drivers exchange information, I started thinking. What did I do  today? If that was me in that car, what would I have thought about in the split second my car crashed into the other? This accident got me thinking about how much I hate falling into the meaningless routine. Just like the woman in the Zantac commercial, up until that point, I was just going through the motions of the day, waking up, going food shopping, picking up my sister from school… all the while my mind was elsewhere, dreaming about something bigger something better, always focused on the next task. But the thing is just like the woman who gets the heartburn, out of nowhere, life can change, with no warning and sometimes with no second chance; that’s why it is so important to live for today. I know it is so cliché’, but I think it’s true, who wants to look back at a day and remember events but have really no memory of being involved in them? Who wants to look back at the motions but have no emotions to relate it to?

Ever since the accident on Monday, I have been thinking a lot about this and ways in which I can inspire both myself and others to live for today, as well as recognize how precious each moment of life is. So I came up with a challenge. Each day I challenge myself (and hopefully through this blog, I will inspire you to challenge yourself) by completing three things each day.

1) Do something you love each day- Whether it’s going for a run or singing so loudly along to the radio, you can’t even hear the real artist (not like I do that or anything..) Just, something for you! My biggest problem, personally with this challenge is that I feel guilty making time for myself, but I have to come to realize, its okay to have “me” time. It’s more than okay, it’s important and encouraged!

2) Do something that scares you each day-Coming from a girl who closed her eyes in The Nancy Drew Movie and hates rollercoasters, this is also a big challenge! Through this though,  I have realized how much fear holds me back just in my everyday life, so I have been aiming just to take steps toward scary.  I watched Craig’s List Killer with my eyes open and I really enjoyed it. So I challenge you to do something as small as that, just to put yourself out there and realize that fear does not have to control you.

3) Tell someone each day how much he or she means to you-I am big into affection. It’s one thing to feel it, but a whole other dimension to express it. My family and friends, mean so much to me, I feel like why shouldn’t I remind them of that?

Anyway, in the end of the Zantac commercial the woman with the heartburn issue takes the Zantac and feels better, after this she slips back into her daily routine with a smile. This is where I stop applying the commercial, because we all have bad days and rough patches, and as much as I wish there was, there is no Zantac pill for life. However, I challenge you to try doing the three things each day I discussed above, I have only done this for a couple of days, but I feel as though it has really helped me break away from the auto pilot lifestyle, as I really hope it does for you as well. Trust me on this one: break out of the meaningless routine, because life is too short to live for tomorrow.

Curly

I have always had a love/hate relationship with my hair. When I was born, my parents were worried because I was bald until I was three. They had no idea where my hair was and why it wasn’t growing. The fact that I had no hair when I was first born is now the biggest joke among my family and friends because I now have (and have since I was three) the thickest head of curly crazy hair you can imagine.

I remember when I got my first haircut, I was so nervous because when the hair dresser cut my hair, it looked so different and short. I have come to learn that, when you go to cut curly hurly hair, not matter what the length it will always look shorter because it curls right back up to the top, creating an afro. After the cut, I remember constantly looking in the mirror, wondering where it all went. I never really felt any special connection toward my hair until that moment. This short new hairstyle wasn’t me, my curls were different and I felt different.

Flash forward nine years to my mega shopping spree for my fourteenth birthday. My family and I took a special trip to the Providence Place Mall for the occasion. The first thing I noticed in the kiosks as I walked down the aisles and aisles of stores were the hair straighteners. Of course I had seen hair straighteners and heard of them before but I never really thought about using them. The only time I had ever seen my hair straight previously was when I was eight and in my cousins wedding. I loved it but didn’t know there was a “do it yourself” remedy. My eyes perked up when all of the sales associates came running toward my mom and I with our frizzy curly hair, we were both sold. I was so excited to use it and change “my look”. It was the first time I realized that I had always associated beauty with straight hair.

After a fantastic day of shopping, a few of my friends called me and asked how my birthday was and when I told them I was going to start straightening my hair, I could hear the disappointment in their voices. It was as if the curls had defined my personality. I started thinking, I have always been described as the “girl with the curly hair” and the spunky personality to match, changing my hair would be like changing me. That scared me.

Flash forward (again), to today when I went for a hair consultation, the first step of getting the Keratin treatment. The keratin would not necessarily straighten my hair, but it would take out the frizz and condense the curl pattern, making it more manageable and easy to straighten with a flat iron. After a very informative consultation, I immediately booked the appointment and walked out with a smile on my face dreaming of a life free of terrible hair days and stress. I was so excited to finally get my hair under control but as I began thinking about this change, I was immediately brought back to that thought, I am the curly girl, that’s me.  I began to think that changing my hair would change me, after all my hair defined me. I was ready to cancel my appointment right then and there. How could I change the one thing that defined me, Dayna?!

When my mom came home, we discussed it. She coincidently just got home from the car dealer in order to make an arrangement to trade in her car. Although she knew this was something she wanted to do, after all, her car is falling apart; she was hesitant because she felt as though it defined her. So many memories came along with that Toyota Highlander. Both scared to give up normalcies in our life, it wasn’t until I got a text from my amazing friend, Val that I was reminded that I (we(you)) are so much more than hair or a car, or a pair of shoes. Although my hair is like my trademark it hardly defines me and all that I stand for. I feel like we all so caught up in a world where we are looking for something to roll us all into one, match one thing to our personalities and ourselves. Although this may be the norm, I don’t believe in it nor do I like it.  So I challenge you, not to fall into the trap that I did.  Let “you” shine through no matter what hairstyle or what outfit you wear; because I am willing to bet that the real you is brighter and bolder than anything “physical” you could define it with. 

New Beginnings [A New Way to look at the New Year]

Can I just say that I hate New Years? Okay, okay…before I go any further, let me tell you that when I started this blog, I promised myself that I wouldn’t be one of those angry writers who just blogs to bitch. So let me reassure you, this is not what I am here to do, however, I have to say I hate January 1^st and all of the pressure it brings. There is so much fuss about resolutions and so much pressure to make a change in one’s life; to have this amazing resolution and believe that this is going to be the year. The year that “I am going to lose twenty pounds” or the year that “I am going to come out of my shell, put myself out there and meet the ‘one’”.  Let me back up and say I am all for aspirations and for dreaming but the problem that I have with this holiday is that it reinforces the idea that we should strive to make a change just this one time each year. Why can’t we look for that inspiration at the beginning of each day not just at the beginning of each year? Why do we need a new year to start fresh? Why can’t we make changes every day? Maybe make it a goal to snack more throughout the day rather than eating three large meals. Or how about make it a goal to put yourself out there a little bit each day to build up to the confidence level that it would take to put yourself out there. Believe me, I know this is so much easier said than done but I really feel as if we all tried to make every day the first day, we would get a little further in our goals and in our resolutions. With all this said, I challenge you to find a resolution each day and take a small step toward something. Whether it be setting aside more time for yourself each day or doing laundry more often, I believe taking one step at a time, making each day new year’s day, we could all go further.

I decided to take on my own challenge and make every day a day of inspiration and a day of resolution. My ultimate goal is to somehow, someday change the world. This is such a long shot but I decided to take my own advice and take a small step each day toward this goal instead of looking at this idea as one overwhelming task. That being said, each day I have decided to make at least five people smile. In our society, everything is so “me” focused. We ask the questions…how is this going to help me? How is this going to affect me? Although we all know, “me” time is important in moderation, it’s time to put this constant “me” mindset aside and ask how our actions will affect others. I am not suggesting a difference will be made overnight but maybe a couple of small steps will lead to something that we can really see change in, something big for everyone. Because after all, each other is all that we have.