UNITED STATES—We all have dreams growing up, but how many of us actually make those dreams that we had as little tots come to fruition? It’s a question that so many of us lose track of time after time. For some of us, we focus our attention on other pressing issues. We have kids, finances become an issue, a family member becomes ill, and we stay at dead-end jobs because of that desire to have a decent paycheck.
I mean to be honest I can list a ton of things, but I want to focus specifically on why so many of us abandon that dream and never place it back into the forefront. Life growing up for most Americans is not easy. Many of us don’t grow up with silver spoons in our mouths, we don’t have parents who are super rich and can utilize money to cover up those legal problems that we may or may not run into.
No, I’m not promoting a piece that is anti-rich, it’s a piece that is hoping to shed light or allow the ‘rich’ to see things from the perspective of others. “You can never judge a person until you walk a mile in their shoes.” Yep, we’ve all heard that phrase before, but not many people seem to grasp the concept.
So many people fail to realize that the notion of working ONE job no longer exists; people work 2-3 jobs to make ends meet. Some have no notion of what it means to have a social life because of the countless sacrifices they make to ensure their children never live the life they endured growing up.
Something that always fascinates me is the notion that I had so many dreams growing up as a kid. At one point I knew I was going to be a pediatrician, that later switched to a surgeon, that later switched to the possibility of becoming a lawyer or a teacher, but the one dream that has never faded from my conscience is becoming a filmmaker.
There is a level of passion there that I simply can’t explain compared to the others. I’ve never been an advocate of living my life for a paycheck. We just happen to live in a world where money is a commodity that is needed to have the basic essentials and materialistic things we want in life. When I think about film, I’m at peace, the stressors of that job from hell or the boss from hell who doesn’t appreciate a single thing I do fades away. I’m in a world where my creativity is allowed to roam free, there are no rules and I could care less what anyone thinks.
So what happened to my dream, reality struck me. The entertainment industry ain’t easy to break into and to make matters worse, we live in a world where the bills have to be paid and that side gig somewhat becomes a permanent gig we find difficult to cut loose. That has happened to me. I feel indebted to a company that I shouldn’t feel indebted to.
It has taken me years to realize this, but I’ve come to the realization that I don’t OWE THEM ANYTHING! Stop beating yourself up over things you can’t control. I’m in the driver seat; it’s time for me to make moves that are necessary to see those dreams, aspirations that I’ve always had come to fruition. I have even started to move the chess pieces to have a back-up plan to resign from a job that I’ve considered the worse torture in my life. I so vividly recall catching this moment on the Oprah Winfrey show and someone mentioned something along the lines that, “Everyday that you do something that you dislike, hate, despise, a piece of you dies inside.”
I’ve felt that emotion for a long time, and I no longer want to feel that way. Its time, I have to make that decision to let something go that is not making me happy. More importantly, it opens the door for me to focus my attention and my gifts, on the things that do indeed make me happy: cinema. I used to have a habit of working on a script every single day. I can’t recall the last time I actually did that. Well TODAY that changes, I won’t allow myself to allow a dream that I chased or wanted for years to just vanish into thin air because of ‘obligations.’
Happiness is what you make it, if you’re not happy, that means you have to find a way to bring that happiness into your life or rid yourself of the things that no longer make you happy. It’s long overdue; I will no longer wait, will you?