When Dreams become Realities

Almost eight years ago, I began to dream a dream. 

Sitting in a college classroom for the first time in over 3 decades, a tiny bud of an idea began to bloom in me. It was an English 101 course, and I was  peer-reviewing a classmate's paper. 

And it hit me...this is what I want to do when I grow up!

Oh, not writing papers--but I do love writing papers! Not even editing them, although I have to admit I not-so-secretly love that, too. 

No, in the midst of explaining some grammatical concept to my editing partner, I had an epiphany. I knew I wanted to not only write myself, but also to teach writing someday.

When I started back to college in 2009, I really didn't have a goal any bigger than just taking a few classes to fill my time and see if I liked it--art and art history since that was my background. But instead, I found my first quarter schedule taken up with Algebra and English (and a class on the ins-and-outs of Microsoft Word that literally saved my college career), and loved every minute. By two weeks into the quarter, I determined I'd finish the degree I abandoned years before. And just a few weeks after that, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with that degree.

In the years since, I've not only finished two degrees (and am hoping for a chance at one more), but I have fallen truly, madly, deeply in love with the written word.

Now, I've always had a thing for language. I spent more than one summer while my  sons were taking swimming lessons, sitting in the bleachers by the Curtis HS pool pretending to watch them swim,  but actually inhaling books on literature, writing, and the history of the English language (The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson is still one of my all-time favorites). I've kept a diary/journal on and off since I was 11 years old, and have devoured virtually any book set in front of me since my mother taught me to read at 4 1/2.

The English language and I are old friends.

(But I digress ... I was talking about dreams--and more importantly, their fulfillment!)

Today I begin teaching my first college writing class! I am co-teaching with a dear friend and colleague, Nicole Blair, in a first-year seminar, working with the theme of the Individual in Community, and using digital storytelling to create personal and community narratives. We've assembled what I think is going to be a great class and I am beyond excited about this opportunity.

Nicole and I have been talking for nearly two years about the possibility of working together on just such a course--and it begins today.

So for today, all I have to say is, never stop dreaming! You never know when--or how--that dream might just come true!