Small Town Girl, Big City Dreams

When I was 14, I said I was going to be a fashion designer when I grew up. I said I was going to graduate high school, leave Indiana, move to Los Angeles, California, & attend FIDM, because that was the only route to go, on account of The Hills.

Well, I was right about a few things. I graduated high school, & I did leave Indiana. Now, while I never made it to FIDM, I did make it to Southern California - which I now proudly call "home." I didn't graduate & head off to college. I spent the first year as a high school graduate trying to figure out what to do, what I should do, or what I even could do. I didn't know what my options were, & at the time felt like I had slim to none. I was in a serious relationship at the time, in love with my best friend of 13 years, but he wasn't a dreamer like me. He didn't want to leave Indiana. He liked where he was, his life, & wanted to stay close to his family. The only family I had/have (actively in my life) was/is my beautiful grandmother, & I couldn't stay to take care of her forever - I still had to live MY life, & live out MY future.

So, I said my goodbyes, & I joined the United States Navy. The military certanily wasn't my dream. Most people that knew me were in total shock. I mean, they knew I could handle it - but me being me, this high maintenance dreamer, it was odd to everyone that I had made this decision. Shoot, I couldn't believe I even made that decision.

9 months later... & there I was,with a whole new responsibility, on a flight to California, with orders to San Diego, or Coronado, specifically. You read 9 months & thought I was gonna say I had a kid, didn't you? Nope! No kids for me - someday yes, but today? No.

I finally made it. I made it to California. It wasn't as planned, but I made it nonetheless.

We grow up being told to dream big dreams, adults telling us that we can be "whatever we wanna be." We can do "whatever we set our minds to." So if that's the case, why is it by the time we graduate, we're being told the opposite? We start being told that life is hard, let go of your "pipe dreams," time to grow up, get out, & be an "adult." We're in the "real world" now.

What does being in the "real world" even mean? What, we can't dream anymore? We can't have hopes & wishes? We can't have AMBITION? I just never understood that, & I still don't. Some of the most amazing things in the world were created off of hopes, wishes, & "pipe dreams."

My message to you today, is not to listen to anyone. Don't listen to the negativity. Don't listen to anyone's stories of THEIR failed attempts. THEY aren't YOU. & YOU can ABSOLUTELY do ANYTHING you set your mind to do. Only YOU know your true capabilities, your ambition, your drive - your heart.

Do you know how many people doubted me four, five years ago? & now I'm living in Southern California, in school full-time, starting my own business, working a side business in the Network Marketing industry, writing a book, working on dance & my music, & traveling the country, soon the world, sharing my story, meeting new people, just living LIFE.

YOU can do it too. YOU are capable, because you are His.

Strength is beauty. & remember, always choose love over lust.

*photo taken by myself, Kay Wilson

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