When I was a little girl up until when I was around 10 years old, I wanted to be a doctor. Then my mother had a tonsilectomy and they put the tonsils in a plastic bag with some clear liquid, and I touched the tissue inside the plastic bag and I felt something tug at my stomach. So that was that. In addition, in the years to come, I realized the sciences were not my strength. I did have a gift for words and I learned to love reading — thus started my love affair with words.
From the start it was clear to me I wanted more than just a four year college degree. So since the medical profession didn’t seem to agree with me, I set my sights on law school. I have always told people that I went to college only to get to law school. And I did.
Starting a family and moving forward as I got older was done more or less along the same lines. I had always known I would settle down (eventually), and that I would have children. You know how some would say having children was not for them? Or that they would rather stay single forever and enjoy life without the commitment.. I knew what I wanted and I had that picture in my mind, although I didn’t know who would be standing next to me.
When I was blessed with Alan coming into my life, it wasn’t exactly an easy choice but it was an obvious one. It meant leaving everything I had built through the years, and the biggest sacrifice was leaving my family behind. Eight years after we said I do, and now that our little tyke is four and a half years old, I am holding fast to my dream and raising the family I had dreamt of. From the start, I knew in my heart I was here to start a family.. I had done practically everything I had set my sights on doing before I made the jump across the other side of the globe — except, that is, to have a family of my own. I was able to pursue the course I wanted, I became a lawyer and did not practice but ended up doing something I was passionate about — Corporate Communications. I had done the things I had wanted to do, meeting a slew of people along the way who in one or another touched my life. Some have come and gone, some are still here.. like my dream.
People sometimes ask us what Angelo wants to be. At 4 1/2 years old, I haven’t heard him say anything specific, and I’m not rushing him. My own dream for him is simple — that he turns out to be a good person who thinks of others beyond himself. If he has a good heart, I know that even when I’m not around, he will do well in whatever he chooses to do. I hope I can ignite the fire in his heart to nurture a dream and to believe in it. I have accomplished what little I have because of the ambition my parents had instilled in me at an early age. I was raised to believe that I could achieve anything I put my heart into with enough hard work and perseverance.
as a dear friend had once told me in jest, “Libre namang mangarap”. (It doesn’t cost anything to dare to dream.). And I have had my fair share of dreams — from the simple to the absurd. Some have come true, some have disappeared and have been buried even if not forgotten.
To my mind, dreaming is an exercise of the heart more than the mind. Beyond the thought process, there is the passion and the act of believing. It’s what gives meaning to those dreams we dream and keep tucked somewhere in our hearts.
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Related posts (Links updated May 24, 2014)
Legal Education – Where to go?Dream on (Feedback from someone hoping to be a legal eagle someday)
Inspiration and a Mother’s Dream to be a Lawyer Some Day
The Path You Choose to TakeThe dreams we dreamBroken Links and Trying to Get into Law School
“Should I go to law school or not, Atty. Dinns?”
Feedback on Feedback: Chasing the dream to become a legal eagle
To those in their Freshman Year in Law School in Ateneo
Be not afraid to pursue your dream to be a legal eagle someday
To all those Law school hopefuls out there..
Pinay New Yorker 