Maybe She Had Other Plans

Several months ago, I was asked how 18 year old me would feel if she knew where our life would be now. My answer? “Disappointed.” “Why,” I was asked. “Because none of her dreams came true,” was my response.

Two things hardly anybody knows about me are:

1. I took two semesters of Culinary Arts in the years following high school and wanted to be a pastry chef.

2. I dreamed of opening a café in my early 20s. Not to date myself, but specifically, an internet café.

I had my first cup of coffee at age 4. The memory still plays in my mind like I’m watching a home movie. The taste of that first sip still lingers in the middle of my tongue when that movie plays.

I’ve been a baker almost my entire life. I couldn’t have been more than 8 years old when one of my good friends and I made our first cake by ourselves. I don’t even know if we had a recipe. I’m fairly confident it was a flop. Then there was the time, also around that age, when I made green chocolate chip cookies. The baked cookies tasted like shit but the raw dough was scrumptious. My brother and I ate it all. Raw eggs be damned.

So, you see, those dreams of mine weren’t just a flash in the pan. They live in my soul. But fear, circumstance, and life far too often get in the way of our dreams. Over time those dreams get lost. Then, before you know it, your life is half over and you look back and wonder… “What if?”

Maybe dreams do come true… But only if you’re bold enough to chase them.