Dreams: 2015 edition

None of these photos pop out on my list of “things to accomplish before I am 25”. When I was younger, my dreams, although they seemed impossible back then, were simple. And I have accomplished all of them with not a few surprises in between. One day I’ve realized that I have stopped dreaming. That’s what adult life does to you. You are more aware of risks and consequences and that youthful audacity fades away slowly into careful calculating.

I’ve recently turned 30 and while I have barely a year to fulfill a wish list, I made one anyway. There are only four things on it, and they are in the collage above.

1. Rotterdam Marathon 2015

There’s a reason why that has the largest photo on the collage and on top of it too. From crying over the difficulty of finishing a five kilometer run in March 2014, I have signed up for the biggest sports event in the Netherlands and this is happening in my city on the 12th of April 2015. I already have three sets of training schedule and they don’t look easy at all. There are at least five runs every week and with my crazy working schedule, I need to make time for it and have a lot of discipline. I know it will be life-changing. How? You will most likely read it here.

2. Safari trip to Tanzania

My childhood imagination has taken me only as far as Paris. Wild, safari animals were but zoo residents and images on a coloring book for me. I couldn’t exactly recall how I came to the idea of doing a safari but it must be a combination of watching endless National Geographic and Discovery channel series and looking at Instagram images.

Why Tanzania? First I think it will be less touristy and more authentic compared to South Africa.

And second, I remember many years ago (about 10 years I think), as a media trainee, I attended a launching event of a jewelry brand in one of the posh hotels in Manila. The jewelry line was made of tanzanite and it was the first time I heard of Tanzania. I told myself I am going to have one of those stones in the future. It was a wild, wild wish that I’ve forgotten the next morning. Maybe I can finally fulfill it.

3. Driver’s license (rijbewijs) 

You know what they say here in the Netherlands? It’s easier to get a Dutch nationality than a Dutch driver’s license. True indeed! I am now a Dutch national and I began the process of getting my driver’s license about the same time as my nationality. Three years ago. Nothing has ever made me cry, frustrated, angry, feel stupid and spend so much money than getting this driver’s license. It took me eight theory exams before I passed it and more courage to haul myself back behind the wheels. I made a little promise to get this rijbewijs before I turn 30 (of course I only manage to pass the exam in that time limit) but at least I want to get it while I am still 30 years old.

4. Russia

Ever since I came back from my two-week solo trip in Saint Petersburg in 2012, I have always wanted to return to Russia.  I can only imagine how pretty the flowers would be in their huge parks during spring and how crazy  the White Nights Festival becomes in the summer. Despite all that happened – MH17, the war with Ukraine, the attack on a Dutch diplomat – I still think that Russians are kind and passionate people and I want to know more about their culture, more than ever.

This early, I am saving up and preparing myself, mentally especially, for these wonderful journeys. And while there is a slight chance that I would not be able to fulfill these, I believe that if you want something really, really bad, the universe will conspire to give you what you desire. I have proven this time and time again. I believe that dreams come true and I am putting it out there so that the universe will help me make it happen.

When was the last time you dreamed of something new?