Sunday, December 22, 2013

Make your dream a reality!

Whispering Tears is done! I am finalizing the book cover and my copyright and then I will be able to publish it on Amazon. Isn't life amazing? I have wanted to publish my work since I was a little girl. I always knew that I would write, but then as I got older I realized how hard it is do become a published author. Now that I am here, it feels surreal. Right now, I am making the dreams of the little girl I was become a reality. A reality that feels unreal, but a reality nonetheless.

If you have ever imagined yourself doing something, or becoming something that you now think is impossible, think about it again. Many dreams are possible, and we can make them come true. The problem is, they don't just happen. You have to make them happen. You have to fight, you have to work, you have to do research, and you have to go out there and do what needs to be done to turn your dreams into reality. If you have ever told yourself that your dreams are not possible, stop telling yourself that lie. Tell yourself the truth. Your dreams will never come true if you do nothing to make them come true. So don't keep yourself from achieving your dreams.

I have overcome many obstacles in my life, and I have achieved a lot more than I ever thought possible. I will never doubt anyone who tells me what they hope to achieve. Instead, I will tell all the dreamers that I meet that they can make it happen, and offer any advice that I can along the way. I am not a math person, I am a creative person, and a philosopher. Another way to put it, I am a dreamer and a thinker. But, I am about to use numbers to drive home the importance of making your own dreams come true. The following data is statistical, but I will try to keep it from getting too "mathy" so my dreamers out there don't get anxious. 

  • Less than 2% of teen moms earn a college degree by age 30. (DoSomething
  • Less than 1% (.75%) of the US population currently serves in the military (ABC News
  • 7% of the US population are military veterans (ABC News
  • 8% of the US military veterans are female (ABC News
  • 5% of the US population has a master degree (US Census
  • Less than 1% of the US population has a doctorate degree (US Census
  • Just over 1 in 5 applicants are accepted to a doctoral program in psychology (APA
  • The average publisher rejects more than 99% of the manuscripts they get (Mentor

I am sure if I continue to research, I would find more writing statistics, but since I am just beginning, they don't help me all that much at this point. Looking at the stats above, I know that I am capable of beating the statistics again. Consider this: 

  • I was a teen mom at the age of 17, yet I completed an undergraduate degree at the age of 31, and my master degree at the age of 33. Technically, I missed it by a year in the stats, but I am sure the number wouldn't vary much in that 1 year if at all. 
  • I served in the US military from 2007 - 2010 
  • I am currently a female US military veteran 
  • I have completed a Master degree and additional graduate courses 
  • I have been accepted to a doctoral degree in psychology, scheduled to begin August 2014. 
  • Finally, in just a few days I will be an official self-published author. 

So, if you have that dream in mind that you have not yet realized, or you long ago gave up on. Make it a reality, make it happen. I know that in some cases, the phrase "it's never too late" doesn't apply, but if it does take advantage. And if its technically too late to realize one dream, don't hesitate to modify your dream into a reality that you can still achieve. Go do it!