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I think it’s taken me a lifetime to discern the difference between a wish and a dream (and hope?).

I remember as a child thinking, “I hope I’m rich when I grow up. I hope I’m famous.” Not that I, a girl who grew up on a farm, knew about being rich and famous, only that it seemed like a good thing, or that I’d heard someone say it.

It took me dragging myself through four and the six years of college (years longer than it should), to learn that for a wish or dream to come to fruition, one has to set goals, sometimes smaller and then larger and larger goals. Step by step, goals help wishes and dreams to come true. Hope has only a small part in the process. So does wishing and dreaming.

Sometimes our dreams and wishes come true in ways we can’t imagine. Being rich is relative. How much do you need to be rich? Is money the only thing that would make you rich? How much would make me happy? Do I need a happy marriage to make me happy? (I decided I do–and that dream has come true). Will having things make me happy? (not as much as I thought).

When I was a child, my wishes and dreams were not as specific as some. For instance, I had a friend who had some talent with singing and she hoped to be an opera star. Is she? Most likely not, but her talent probably took her a long way through life, and perhaps she became a music teacher or a song writer. Or, maybe she’d surprise me (if I looked her up, which I may do), and became an opera star after all.

I had a family, like many, that didn’t tell us, that we can be whatever we want to be. They believed that to be a good person, to marry a good person and have a good family, was good enough. And, it is a good thing. Those are good things.

But, a person can wish, hope and dream. And, set goals and make them come to fruition in some way or another.