dreaming the impossible dream

if you could do anything you want, with unlimited resources at your fingertips, what would you do? where would you go?

what have you dreamed of doing all your life? any dreams that seem so big that you doubt they'll ever get off the ground?


my biggest dream was always to live abroad, probably South or Central America. as a spanish major in college, i have always dreamed of immersing myself in the spanish language, in latin culture. even if just for a year or two, i'd still love to live in Peru or Costa Rica. Argentina or Chile.

i'd love to teach English to grade school kids in a spanish-speaking country. even now that i have a daughter, i dream even more of exposing her to such rich experiences. i picture her going to school in the very school in which i teach in Panama or Puerto Rico. i fantasize about her beginning kindergarten in South America, learning to read in spanish, counting in spanish. i dream about walking down the hall to her classroom after school, picking her up and her telling me all about her day as we walk down a quaint little road to our quaint little latin american home where we'll be greeted buy a yippy little pup who barks in spanish. (kidding)

i admit though that i don't see that dream ever leaving my thoughts, especially now that i have a child. before she was born, i always wondered if i had the resources and courage to pack up and leave the country. it never happened. or rather, i never made it happen i guess.

now i doubt it ever will because my daughter deserves to be near her father. every child deserves to have a mother and father available to them at all times, and i wouldn't be able to live with myself worrying about what living thousands of miles from her father would do to her. she could have all the richest world experiences i could give her living in a foreign country, but none of that would equal the blessing of having a Daddy nearby. a little girl needs a Daddy. i couldn't take that away from her. and i guess he'd be pretty hurt too if i took her so far away. (*hmph* with turned up lips and narrowed eyes)

so as the famous poem asks, what DOES happen to a dream deferred?