Make Dreams Come True
Little did I know how magical Disney World would be.
Joseph was born in 1986. Epcot opened in 1982. I decided that I was going to take him there when he was 10 so that he would really appreciated it more. I had been to Disneyland (California) so knew that it would be fun. Somewhere along the way I kept moving other things in front of it.
Then I married a Floridian. I didn’t realize just how imbedded the park culture is for those who live near Orlando. And of course Vic’s favorite cruise line is none other than the Big Red Boat aka Disney!
Needless to say last year when we decided to take all the kids to Orlando for Thanksgiving and go to 4 parks in 3 days, it still hadn’t sunk in that one of my dreams was coming true. So the planning began.
We had children, grandchildren and extended family coming from all over Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Kentucky. There were rooms to reserve, plane tickets to book, food to cook and itinerary to implement.
Once everyone started to arrive on Wednesday and gathered at the hotel you could see the planning in action. Thursday morning we all got up and went to Epcot. As Vic and I pulled into the parking lot and I saw that big silver globe, I got tears in my eyes. It was a very unexpected reaction. Here I was on property with my son in tow, realizing a small dream 23 years ago.
It seemed so simple and not a big deal on the surface. I mean really… I have taken my son on many trips from coast to coast (14 states at last count), to almost every ski destination where American flies, to Italy with Vic and the kids. So it wasn’t like we sat at home and did nothing for the past 23 years. But here I was. At Epcot with Joseph, trying to control the tears in my eyes.
What I realize, now that I reflect, is this. Yes, I had a dream, a wish. But I had not taken any significant action. Yes, I wanted to take him when he was 10, and there were a lot of reasons why that didn’t happen then. Disney’s tag line is “Make a Dream Come True”. Now how can anyone make a dream come true if they are not taking any action? A dream remains just that until it moves into the goal column. Once it is a goal you have to take action to make that dream come true.
Our goal was to take our children and grandchildren snow skiing for Christmas this year. For Vic’s family it would have been snow skiing for the first time. So Thanksgiving was not on the family get together radar, but because we lost Austin this year and then Tyler and Savannah were blessed with another arrival (Nathan) and a due date of December 21st… that snow skiing goal got moved to another year. So we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving with the children this year instead and Orlando popped up as an option. So you see, making that dream list is always a good thing. The seed gets planted. The intention is set. Then all that has to happen is to move that dream to the goal list and take action.
I can tell you that this trip was better than I could have imagined 23 years ago and it had nothing to do with where we stayed or the money that was spent. It had everything to do with the experience. Joseph really understood the magic of Disney. How Walt Disney was an amazing visionary where there was … no dream too big. Disney’s dreams were off the chart. Each park was unique. Each park touched young and old. And if you looked around there was no age limit. You can go time and time again and not see it all. And if you finally do see it all … you just might be showing it to your children and experiencing the magic all over again.
So become your own Imagineer. Make YOUR dreams come true.
Tags: Disneyworld, Epcot, Magic Kingdom
December 8th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Very nice, Lisa! Good for you! We have another expression, which is “create your dream, and then step into it, one step at a time.”
December 9th, 2009 at 7:16 am
Lisa,
Mary Ann and I did not have the gang with us for our visit but no doubt Disney World is a very special place. You have heard me talk about it and probably thought I was even loonier than usual. A place, a vision, a group of people all embracing millions of dreams is very special. Everyone’s dream is different but to them, their dream is the only dream.