Never Give Up On Your Dreams

For those of you who know me you know that I've always got too much going on and generally speaking I like it that way.   In the next several weeks I may be testing even my juggling abilities, but I'm excited to try.  

I've been dying to tell you about something but it has taken me a while to share it for fear that it wouldn't be happening but the date keeps getting closer so I'm going to share my news.  To start with my job is  amazing.  I have the joy of being able to help people with my company engage in volunteering.  Together, we work to make communities better - to make a difference in our community. 

For over a year now I've been the President of the Corporate Volunteer Council of Atlanta.  The CVC as it is called is one of the most wonderful organizations that I've ever been involved with and the friendships I've made through this involvement means so very much to me.  Because of my involvement with the CVC, this summer an incredible opportunity crossed my path.   The CVC was invited to travel to Zimbabwe to participate in a conference on corporate social responsibility and so, I'm going. 

If you've read this far and thinking "wow," let me just say that I am too but I've been "wowed" for a couple of months but for a different reason.  

When I was perhaps seven years old a missionary from Rhodesia came to my church.  As a child I listened to him share stories about the country and the people and from then on I was convinced that I would be a missionary in Africa - not just Africa, Rhodesia.  Until the age of twelve or so, deep inside I knew what my future looked like though I kept that small nugget tucked deep inside my heart.  As a G.A. (stands for Girls Auxiliary, later Girls in Action), every week I would keep the missionaries in Rhodesia in my prayers.  But teenage years got in the way and I adjusted my career goals.  And so as an adult I began to study French and decided that when I finally retired I would join the Peace Corp so that I could fulfill my childhood dream of working somewhere in Africa.  The French seemed like a great way to learn the language and be able to combine my dream with a new goal.   There are plenty of French-speaking African countries.   Who would have ever imagine that 50 years later an opportunity to go to the place I dreamed of would come to me?  To me this is nothing short of a miracle.

I've cried several times since the email arrived asking for someone from the CVC to come and help with the seminar.   The people making the request have no idea that their request was, for me at least, a dream come true. 

There will be more about this journey I'm sure but for now I had to write to say  that you shouldn't give up on your dreams.  Dreams do come true and while they may come in a different form, they can also end up being better than anything you would have ever imagined.