In my younger years I had a great many dreams. As early as I can remember the first thing I ever dreamt of being was Laura Inhalls Wilder. I wanted to move out to an unsettled land and get to experience new things. I longed to live a life on a farm, my happiest childhood moments were spent on my grandparents farm. I knew the West had already been tamed so I considered being a writer. I could create new worlds and share them with others. I wrote constantly but soon found myself doubting I could ever get published so I toyed with other ideas.
For a brief period I thought of singing or acting. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be on stage? I spent time in the school theater through middle school and high school. I enjoyed building sets, helping with costumes, memorizing lines, and bringing characters to life. I never pursued it in college.
My high school yearbook says I wanted to be a sniper. My oldest brother joined the military when I was young and I loved going to visit with him on the bases. He and his buddis made military life seem appealing. I took tests at the recruitment office and was told all I needed to do was to manage to be off my anxiety/panic attack medication for a year. I tried but ended up in the ER. So I had to set that dream aside. Looking back, I am thankful that I couldn’t do that.
So when graduation rolled around I turned to agriculture. I had spent the last three years in FFA (Future Farmers of America) and I loved it. I got experience in the greenhouse, I got to work at a fish hatchery, I worked with horses, I learned the ins and outs of farming. So I enrolled in Agriculture classes in college. The plan was to have my own farm and stables. I would offer riding lessons and in the summer I would offer riding camps. A one week camp would be for handicapped children (wether it be mental or physical) and I would offer scholarships so that those in financial distress could still send their children. I was so excited about this but then I got pregnant and it was suggested that I leave school until after I had my daughter. My instructors were concerned about my exposure to chemicals while being pregnant. So I left school and never returned to finish my agri-business degree.
I still dream about my stables and perhaps that is why horses end up in almost every story I write (all but Christmas as the Zoo). I am thankful that I was able to embrace my original childhood dream. Writing has been wonderful. I love creating new worlds, developing new ideas, sharing my characters with readers.
Did you have a dream that you had to set aside?
Angela Schroeder
Patricia Kiyono
Elaine Cantrell
Jeff Salter
Joselyn
Tonette Joyce
Four Foxes, One Hound 
sounds like you had a considerable investment in the farming/agriculture spectrum. And I’m sure that provides a wealth of context for any of your plots which are set either in rural places or in earlier times.
one of my childhood fantasies was to be an old west sheriff or gunfighter — it didn’t make much difference (to me then) which side of the law I was on — so perhaps we would’ve interacted (with you as Laura Ingalls).
At a much younger age, I loved horses and dreamed of (one day) owning a golden Palamino like Roy Rogers had. Alas, that never happened, and I’ve since lost most of my affection for giant pets that eat a month’s worth of groceries every day.
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There is something appealing about the wild west. I can’t picture you on the wrong side of the law though.
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well, the television gunfighters I liked were not exactly on the WRONG side of the law, but they were definitely on the fringe. For example:
Josh Randall [ Steve McQueen ] in “Wanted Dead or Alive” — where he played a bounty hunter.
Palladin [ Richard Boone ] in “Have Gun Will Travel” — where he played a hired gunman
Then there was Zorro, who was always breaking the law — but he was cheerful about it.
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Now that you have a house and your children are getting older, you can start investigating that dream you set aside. Even taking one or two classes at a time will get you closer to that degree. And through it all, keep writing. People are reading memoirs now, and your story may inspire someone – or send your experience in to a place like Chicken Soup. Dreams might have to be postponed, but not all have to be abandoned.
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Thank you for that encouragement. I was talking about my dream with my daughter the other day as she us starting to seriously look at colleges. She has decided she wants to be a veterinarian. We have played with the idea of doing this together. I plan to take a fee classes here and there. I’m not giving up yet, just taking a sceneic route. 🙂
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I remember reading the Laura Ingalls books as a young girl and just loving them. I grew up on a farm and my mom did a lot of the things in the books, so it wasn’t that foreign. I’ve since become a “city” girl and would not survive if I had to kill my own food. I read Little House on the Prairie to my kids and was amazed/shocked/terrified at the remoteness of their cabin.
My daughter wants to live on a farm and have a bunch of animals. I’ve told her she has to remember to feed the dog first.
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Actually, the idea of being onstage for a living never appealed to me when I was young.I had two experiences in school and if the acting bug ever appealed to me, it was killed by one or the other.
I agree with Patty; you are far too young to not consider finishing your interest in agriculture.
A sniper??? That is a real surprise to me!
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