“Why don’t you…”

“Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show ’em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, THEN sank into the swamp, but the fourth one stayed up! And that’s what you’re gonna get, lad. The strongest castle in these islands.”

~Prince Herbert’s Father, Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail

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“Why don’t you…” has been a common theme throughout my adult life.

On one hand, my generation was brought up with the idea that we could be or do anything we wanted in life. These assertions were backed up with unprecedented advancements in technology, access to education, equality of rights, and breaking stereotypes in the workplace. The American standard of living was raised – we connected with friends all over the world. We were artists and activists before we even hit high school. We walked out of our college graduation ceremonies with diplomas in our fists and a fire in our hearts: we were ready to be everything we’d been told our whole lives we could be.

And then reality hit.

It started with the job search. I was actually lucky in that a little more than a month after graduation, I found work in the city I wanted to live in that was similar to what I thought I wanted to do. Most of my friends and classmates ended up searching quite a bit longer, and even now quite a few of them are in positions they hadn’t anticipated in college.

The recession came next, followed shortly by the countless other burdens that adulthood brings. Your parents get older. Babies are on the way. The job you took “just to start out in your career” is now five years in and has become an endless drain on your psyche. The causes of your youth, the plays and books and paintings and photographs that decorated and enriched your mind’s eye are now relegated to a dusty corner of the soul, packed  away like so many other childish things for “later, when I have some time.”

Only too late do many of us realize that it’s the same corner where dreams go to die.

Which is exactly why the words “Why don’t you…” are so important.

You see, once upon a time I was going to be a journalist. I was interested in a lot of different things, so the idea of getting to experience a wide swatch of human existence and then share it with the world through words was extremely appealing. A number of events and experiences and “why don’t you”s conspired to lead me astray from that path. While I’ve had an interesting journey thus far and found success in many areas of my life, a big part of me has always regretted not following that initial dream. My soul won’t let me box it up and let it be forgotten.

So that is my purpose for this blog: to reconnect the pieces that have been adrift in me for too long. To turn a dream into an accomplishment. To make good on a promise to myself.