Dream Chasers

“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.”  - T.E. Lawrence

A dream chaser is much more than a Meek Mill album. A dream chaser is a person with the COURAGE to follow their heart. I stress on COURAGE because for a very long time I didn’t understand what that meant. Dream chasers take risks to make their dreams a reality, they truly believe that they will succeed at their dreams. That alone in itself is courageous, but hard work and sacrifices play a huge part.

When you spend a lot of your time with people without dreams, its easy to feel like they don’t understand you, or even worse, you start to doubt yourself.

I worked every day sitting opposite someone who told me I’m always coming up with these crazy business ideas. Hearing that week after week. I myself thought my ideas were a bit far fetched. But, sometimes life just has a way of pointing you in the right direction, and getting you right where you need to be. All you have to do is jump.

It’s been four months since I left my full time job. My only regret is that it took me almost two years to get out of that negative environment. A 2.5-hour commute, no creative freedom, an unimaginative, a sly snake of a supervisor, the kind of environment where words of advice are “Trust no one”, salary was frequently cut, the director, a Mexican version of Jafar and worst of all, creativity was frowned upon. It was a stifling environment to say the least.

Two days before I resigned, I cleared out my desk, wrote my resignation and never sent it. Before I got the courage to, I was called into a disciplinary meeting and told I would be suspended for poor punctuality regardless of me working late hours and going above and beyond my role as a Graphic Designer.

So I choose to resign, and I cried.

I cried because of the uncertainty of my future. Regardless of how shitty my colleagues or my job was, it gave me a form of security and I was scared to continue not knowing what my next move was, until I had no choice.

Today, after all these months, I had the most amazingly fulfilling day I could ever imagine. I’ve heard horror stories of what freelancers go through. How some months are tough, no work comes in, they are always working, it’s near impossible to take a vacation. I can tell you from experience, that these things are only true, if you have a negative perspective.

I used to be angry, upset and annoyed all the time. I suffered from back pains and headaches. But now I only get pain from pushing too hard in the gym. I wake up every day excited, I’m eating better and working out often, I’ve lost seven pounds since, I even went to Tobago for work! I go to bed when I want, I wake up when I want, I spend time with my family, and I work in my pajamas. I love life. I get time to write, draw, paint, read and sleep. It’s not perfect, but coming from the job I just left, this is a heaven on earth.

For the first time ever, I feel like I’m going to be okay.