DREAM BIG: Just a Girl From Jamaica Queens with Big Dreams!

On my last post I quoted Biggie, and here I am again, relating another post to another Biggie song. “It was all a dream… I use to read Word Up Magazine…Salt and Peppa and Heavy D up in the limousine… hanging pictures on my wall… “. Biggie understood, and I agree, that it all starts with a dream, you have to dream big, never settle and follow your dreams in order for them to become reality.

It Starts with a Dream!
When I was younger, my great grandmother Rosa would tell me fairytales; Sleeping Beauty, Hanzell and Gretrel; and my favorite…Cinderella. I believed mama Rose doing so contributed to my characteristics of being a dreamer. I was so much of a dreamer, that my first trip to the states at eight years old I believed the street of Jamaica Queens were going to be lined with gold. When I got off the plane and exited the airport, the streets were covered with snow… so I waited the next day to see once it melted if there would be gold. Once the snow melted, there was still no gold just concrete. Even though there was no visible gold, I still remember feeling like Eddie Murphy, in “Coming to America”, when he arrived in Queens…Happy! I was happy because I knew there was potential to live my dreams. Still potential to find streets paved in gold. My family migrated to the United States for opportunity, which is golden. Where there is opportunity for growth, there is gold, and the path that take you, there is golden.

Dream Big!
Every great idea starts off as a dream, a vision or a theory. The world is filled with dreamers I believe the difference however, is if you dream big or small. I graduated college, in the year that I won’t mention :), at 23 years old. Two years after graduating college I was making a good salary that allowed me to upgrade from the car my parents had bought, to a car that I dreamed about. I can recall discussing my options with my parents and listening as they tried to convinced me to purchase a Volkswagen Jetta. My rebuttal, I am more of a BMW girl than I am a Jetta. I could afford it and I wanted to purchase a luxury car so I can have luxury car conversations (hey I was in my 20s, it sounded good at the time lol). I argued that I plan to live a certain lifestyle which I had worked hard to afford, so why would I settle for a car that I didn’t desire. When I spent 13-18 hours working at the hospital it felt good to get into a car that I dreamed about, that to me is true compensation. Something less would feel like I cheated myself. Dream big and the returns will be bigger. Dream small and don’t be upset if your returns are smaller.

Just Don’t Settle!
Big dreams versus little dreams are subjective. Subjective meaning, it is from the individuals point of view or interpretation of what big is. My idea of big may be small to someone else. There is nothing wrong with that. At the end of the day, they’re my dreams which equals to my happiness. I may be happy to strive to drive a BMW and someone else may be striving for a Bentley. It’s whatever you can afford and whatever makes you happy. My advice is just don’t settle for anything less than you can afford. That goes for any aspect of your life i.e. a relationship, a job etc. In relationships, you may find a woman settling for less because she fears being alone. Someone may work a job that’s not your dream job because you are scared you will be unemployed. Please note, earlier I said what you can afford. If you can afford to do better, then do better. You will never live up to your optimal potential being afraid to chase you dreams!