When a forgotten dream came true

I understand that it is important to have some dreams to guide our life. With dreams we can set our goals, we can consider what we want out of our lives. Dreams are especially important during the transition periods. In case we don't have any dreams, how can we decide how to go ahead?

I am going through all the dreams I've had. Like so many other teenage girls, I wanted to be a Hollywood actress. As soon as I realized this is virtually everyone else's dream, I gave up. When I was in high school, the expression "I have determined I will be an actress" was a cliche. As someone who hates and loathes everything that seem popular, I decided to pursue my dreams into another direction: opera singing.

I was practicing opera singing with one great ambition in my mind: to sing Wagner at Savonlinna Opera Festival. (Believe or not, this is the first time I am admitting the latter part of my dream in public...) When the years passed, I understood that serious singing was a deadly struggle. Unlike pianists or violinists or clarinetists, singers are not allowed to practice many hours a day, which means we must learn a lot in a short amount of time. This never worked for me; in order to learn everything I wanted, I had to push my voice until my vocal cords were (almost) bleeding... Also, with my lyric voice type and tender, girlish appearance, I would never, ever become a Wagnerian soprano.

I have learned how important it is to allow dreams to fade and change. But how about making a forgotten dream a reality?

When I was a child, I used to admire many war heroes, among them the renowned English admiral Lord Horatio Nelson. (Sorry, at those days I never thought that in reality, there are no war heroes, just villains of different degrees.) I remember spending hours and hours reading about his battles, his ships, his tactics, his infamous love affair... Obviously, I had an enormous dream to visit Nelson's most famous ship, H.M.S. Victory in Portsmouth. Yet, the dream shortly faded and got buried under my bigger and more prominent dreams.

We travel ten years ahead in time. I have lived in the United Kingdom for six years; four years in Glasgow and two in London. Studying abroad was my dream when I was a child and I suddenly realized this long-forgotten dream had come true... So I decided to go ahead and make another forgotten dream a reality: me and my best friend in London bought train tickets to Portsmouth and the first attraction to see was, of course, H.M.S. Victory.

Often I think dreams never come true. But just a quick look at the picture above will always serve as a reminder for me to follow my dreams, even those that seem lost or forgotten.

It's been almost two months since I submitted my second master's dissertation. I still can't believe I'm not going to attend university again this year. Sounds pretty normal? Well, not for me. I can't describe how much I miss my struggle with post-structuralism or latent class variables! I miss the long days in the libraries, the hours of despair with some post-modernist and rather pseudoscientific articles, and even the last-minute attempts to formulate a short but sensible titles for all my numerous assignments.

Here I am going to write about my experiences regarding my current transition from an "eternal student" to a "normal", productive citizen. This is to share my encounter with this radical change. Or actually, we are not talking about only one "change" but rather a series of transitions and transformations. The first is right behind the corner, but I'll return to it in a couple of weeks.