What I wish for my daughter...

That she moves off to NYC when she gets older and lives out her dreams and is not scared to do so.

OK, I don't really care if she moves to NYC...that was MY dream.  But just that she goes wherever it is that she wants to go and isn't too scared to do whatever that is.

I was scared.  Of failing, of a big move, of leaving my family, and well, I was dating this guy...who I was in love with since I was 19.  I remember 3 months after dating him, it hit me.  Not like a giddy young girl, type thing.  But more matter-of-fact... I can remember being in his truck outside my parents house.  We were just sitting there, I think I kinda had my head in his lap, and suddenly I was like holy crap, I am going to marry him- he is going to be my husband one day.  And 8 years later- I did.

I don't regret marrying him, or having my kids, or anything in my life.  Regrets are dumb.  However, I do still kinda wonder what if I had just gone off after college like I always wanted to do.  I had a Prof in college who said, if you can go to NYC and make it in the Ad World, you can go anywhere.  Well, things just fell into place for me and I had an offer 4 days after I graduated.  It may not have been NYC, but it was one of the biggest and best Ad agencies here in Detroit.  And I had so much fun, and learned a lot, and made great connections.

But I still can't help to wonder.... "what IF".

I plan to teach Maddie not to have regrets for the things she has done in her past.  I just hope that I can teach her to live her dreams and not be scared.  And I am not so sure that I am the proper teacher for this as I haven't been able to do this myself.

(P.S. if you are wondering what in the world made this post come up... I was just on FB looking at pics of my old childhood friend who just went to visit his sister who is going to college in NYC)