2024丨呵护你的梦想

Care your dream

My dream ended when I was born. Although Inever knew it then, I just held on to something that would never come to pass.Dreams really do exist. But in the morning when you wake up, they areremembered just as a dream. That is what happened to me.

I always have the dream to dance like abeautiful ballerina twirling around and around and hearing people applaud forme. When I was young, I would be twirling around and around in the fields ofwildflowers that grew in my backyard. For hours I would dance as if people werewatching me. I would dance so fast that I would forget where I was, until Iwould hear sounds that reminded me of where I really was. I thought that if Itwirled faster everything would disappear and I would wake up in a new place.Reality woke me up when I heard a voice saying, "I don't know why youbother trying to dance. Ballerinas are pretty, slender little girls. Besides,you don't have the talent to even be a ballerina." I remember how thosewords paralyzed every feeling in my body. I felt to the ground and wept forhours.

We lived in the country by a nearby lakeand I would sometimes go there to hide. My parents were never home anyway, andI did not like to be at home where I could hear the walls talking of pain. Whenthey were home, my mother just yelled and criticized because nothing was everperfect in her life. She dreamed of a different life but ended up living in acountry far away from the city where she believed her dreams would have cometrue.

I enjoyed hanging out by the water. I wouldsit there for hours and stare at my reflection. There I was, looked nothinglike a pretty ballerina dancer. Reflections don't lie. Once the waves wouldcome, my reflection was gone. Washed away just like my dream to dance. I satthere staring at the water, hoping that my reflection would reappear and bedifferent.

As I grew older, I began to realize thatthe reason my dream was even born in the first place, was because it was somethinginside of me. The dream I had was never nurtured and cared for, so it slowlydied. It's not that I wanted it to die, but I allowed it to die the day Istarted listening to the words, "You can't do it." When I finallywoke up from many years of dreaming, I realized that you can't settle fordancing in the wildflowers, you have to move on to the platform. I still go tothe lake sometimes and sit there. Looking at my reflection is different nowtoo. When I was young, I looked at how others saw me, now that I am older andwiser; I look at how God sees me．