DREAM, DREAM, DREAM

When my niece announced to the whole family that she would someday work at PIXAR studios, my reaction was “Great. That’s how you dream! Dream big.” From that time on (she was 13) she has streamlined her “dream”, and now, that she’s almost 16, someday, she hopes to design clothes and accessories for the pets of Hollywood stars! As you can see, she hasn’t completely given up on Hollywood. Incidentally, she is already surfing the net for a possible course to take up in college along the lines of “becoming a designer” and her most recent find is a course called “fine arts major in information design”. This discovery kept her busy during vacation, as her active imagination forced a corporate-like brainstorming with her older sister on the possible brand name for original graphic and digital designs. She said that this brand would be launched in year 2015 – where else, but in Hollywood!

My niece knows exactly what she wants.

In fact, all my nephews and nieces know exactly what they want when they grow up. Both of my nephews (10 and 11 years old at this time of writing) have each designed a logo for their future companies. The eleven-year old has designed a private-detective logo, complete with an advertisement that says “Who-dun-it? We’ll dig ‘em out for you!” The ten-year old on the other hand has asked my sister “Mama, how many computers do you think I should have in my Internet-café?” My sister, herself a dreamer answered, “It depends on how much capital you got, Anak”, and my nephew goes, “What capital?”

The young, how they dream!

The first niece to step on to college this school year (2007) took up nursing. This, she says is in preparation for a course she really likes, Medicine. During the parent-student orientation, the facilitator said, “If your child is here because you, parents, forced them to take this course, you might just be wasting your money, since they probably won’t pass the board exam anyway. One piece of advice,” she added, “listen to your children. Understand their interests and strengths. Support their dreams. Because, in the end, it’s their dream, not yours, it’s their future not yours.”

During this orientation, my sister was thinking about her younger daughter – the one who wears four anklets, has pierced her ears twice, owns a collection of fancy earrings, glues herself to improving the “look” of her Friendster, always says “duh?” among other expressions, and lands the lead roles in school plays. My sister was smiling about a time when this daughter suddenly announced “Mama, I already know my fashion design brand: I will call it Simply Ish!”

Ish, by the way is how we call her.