Don't Ever Let Go Of Your Dreams - Wishes Do Come True!
What is a dream? A dream is defined as a cherished desire, an aspiration or a strongly desired goal or purpose. From our childhood to teen age years and into adulthood, do you remember dreaming about that special toy you wanted, what you wanted to be when you grew up, your first car, first house or how rich you would become some day?
As a child I always had a love for music and can remember my younger brother and I watching our 
reflections on the TV screen as we sang and danced around the living room when our mom would play our favorite 45 records on the reord player or turn up our favorite songs on the radio.
Coming from a fairly large family (I am the oldest of six children) and with both my mom and dad having lots of siblings too when there was a holiday or birthday celebration, there was always a huge gathering of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents to dance and sing the time away with. One of my uncles was a great trumpet player and we could without a doubt count on him to play at every one of our family events which only added to the fun and festivities of the day.
Up until the time I was 13 years old we lived in a two family house with 
my mom, dad, brother and sisters on the first floor and my grandmother and grandfather living on the second. In the hallway as you entered our home was an old player piano that I would spend hours tapping the keys or watching in amazement as the perforated rolls of music would bring the keys to life as if someone was actually sitting there playing it. It was during this time that my aspiration to learn how to play the piano began.
My aspiration was short lived because very soon thereafter my parents bought a home for our family and the old player piano was not included in the furniture that came with us in the move. Instead because it was so old and out of tune it was chopped up into little pieces and thrown away along with my dream.
About a year later I approached my dad and asked him if I could lean to play the accordion. A couple of my cousins played the accordion and while it was not the piano I wanted so much to play, it was in my mind at least a musical instrument with keys that could satisfy in some small sense a little piece of my dream.
My dad who is a wonderful father and worked very hard to give put food on the table and pay the bills never looked at these desires as an opportunity for us to expand our interests in the things we wanted to pursue. To his way of thinking he saw this as just a very frivolous thing and that the only reason I could possibly have in learning how to play the accordion was because I just wanted to copy everything my two cousins did.. Though I pleaded and begged that this was something I really wanted, to please let me try, my dad never did give in. Devastated and crushed by his denial, I laid my dream to rest and never brought it up to him again.
During the next 30+ years, I married my childhood sweetheart, raised two wonderful sons and worked as a secretary, tried my hand at a couple of home business ventures, was the front desk person at a bowling center working my way up to manager and finally to the real estate profession. Over these many years I would often talk of the story about my dad, my unrealized dream to play the piano and how it had instilled in me a belief that my pursuit of any goal or desire would go unanswered.
Around the beginning of June of this year a past client referred his sister Anne to me who was interested in purchasing a home and within 3 weeks she found the house of her dreams and we went to contract. At the home inspection we started talking about how she was going to arrange her furniture and the two pianos she had. "Pianos, you have two pianos?" I asked. Turns out that Anne was a piano teacher in the New Haven school system. Now from our initial conversations I knew she was a teacher but for some reason still unbeknownst to me I never got around to asking her what subject she taught until that day.
I told Anne about my dream of wanting to learn how to play the piano and did she take on students privately? Unfortunately with her busy schedule and lack of time, she had stopped taking on any students individually and was concentrating only on her teaching duties at school. However, she did have a friend who she thought might have the time to take on a new student and would check on it for me. Over the next few weeks I got really busy, Anne closed on her house at the end of July and I forgot our conversation about her friend. We've stayed in touch and have spoken to one another a few times since the closing but without any further mention about my interest in playing the piano.
This past Sunday Anne sent me an email to let me know the dust had finally started to settle in her new house, that she was going to start taking on students again and was I still interested? I think I must have read that email ten times as my heart raced with the excitement and I felt the tears of joy to be able to finally embrace the vision of fulfilling my long lost dream. I sent her an email back to let her know I would absolutely love to take her up on her offer and to thank her for thinking of me. Yesterday I received her reply to let me know how happy she was to know I was still interested and would get back to me soon with all the information I needed on what books to buy, when I could expect to start, length of the lessons and what days and times would be available.
I never jumped out of my chair so fast to celebrate the incredible feelings of joy and excitement I was feeling with my husband who was just as thrilled when I told him the news.
As I anxiously await the start of my first piano lesson....I still can't believe this is really happening..... please don't ever loose sight or let go of your dreams no matter how small or how big they are because if you dream long and hard enough.....wishes really do come true!
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Donna Bigda - REALTOR®, ABR, SRES, e-PRO
RE/MAX Alliance - Branford, CT 06405
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Copyright © 2008 by Donna Bigda, All Rights Reserved ...*Don't Ever Let Go Of Your Dreams - Wishes Do Come True!*
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