And I been burned and I been learned in the same city.

Aren't Mondays absolutely fabulous when you don't have to go to work? I love it. And to think, in a few short weeks I'll have two months worth of Mondays with no work. Yes, I know. I'll shut up about that.

Unfortunately I've had a huge cloud hanging over my head this long weekend: all of the first batch of assignments for my stupid online course are due at various times this week and I still haven't started any of them. So needless to say, that's what I'm procrastinating right now. Thankfully it's a a cold cloudy day today. That makes staying in and working all afternoon much easier.

The rest of my long weekend was pretty good. Friday was my mom's bday so I headed down to St. Ratford and got in some quality time watching a few episodes of Flight of the Conchords with the 'rents and hanging out with some of my friends, who constantly remind me what fabulous people they are and how lucky I am to have them in my life.

On my way back to Toronto last night, I read the book "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch, which a friend at work lent to me. It's a quick read, and I really enjoyed it. It's based on a lecture about really living your childhood dreams given by a computer science professor who has terminal cancer. I was able to finish it on the train and it gave me a lot to think about. There's a lot of great advice for living in the book; and it also made me reflect on my childhood dreams.

So what were my childhood dreams and how am I doing with living them?

Dream #1 - Living in Toronto
As a child, I was pretty certain that staying in St. Ratford was not for me. Visiting Toronto was always so exciting to me; driving in and seeing the skyline would take my breath away. I wanted more. As I got older, I started to fall into the Toronto-is-scary mentality that many small town people have, and I came to believe that city life might not be for me. Luckily, fate intervened, and it was U of T that had the programs that I wanted, and they offered me the largest scholarship of any of the schools to which I applied. I was really nervous to come here, but after a few weeks, I knew I was where I was meant to be. Ever since then, I've known Toronto is where I belong. All of the most positive events of the last 10 years of my life have happened in this city. And, I still get that same feeling of excitement when I enter the city; however it is now happily paired with feelings of familiarity and home.

Dream #2 - Becoming a Rock Star
Unsurprisingly, I was into music from a very young age. I listened to cheesy pop in the 80s/early 90s and in 1994, I bought Pearl Jam's Vs. album, and I began my journey through 90s grunge rock to the music snob you all know and love today. Anyhow, when I was young, I always dreamed of myself becoming a music star, despite the fact that I had no discernible musical talent. I played piano for years, but I was spectacularily mediocre.

However, I am living this dream the best way that I can by having music as my primary interest, and going to as many shows as possible. I can't be a rock star, but boy, I'm a pretty good fan. :)

Dream #3 - Writing

I wrote a lot of stories as a child and even though I went through a huge span of career dreams, writing was always there. I've always loved stories and books, and I dreamed of becoming a writer. I've always had ideas for books in my head, but unfortunately, I don't have a time to actually write them. Maybe one summer I'll buckle down and just write? I don't know if this will ever happen, but at least I do have my blog, which is my little corner of the universe in which I can write whatever I want, and that's something.

Dream #4 - Having a BFF

I'm not sure if this is a result of being an only child from a small family, but I spent a lot of time as a child imagining being an adult with an awesome best friend or best friends. People with siblings, or are close to cousins etc, have built-in friends to rely on, but I guess I always realized that I'd have to find these people on my own. And, I'm glad to say I have. As any reader knows, I have my BFF, my dear Becca T. And, on top of that, I have a lot of other close circles of friends: my high school friends, my university friends, and my friends from work. Whenever I'm going through a tough time, or a good time, I am always reminded how awesome these people are. They will be there to hold me up, or just to be happy for me.

Dream #5 - Having a job I love

As I said before, I dreamed of a variety of career possiblities when I was a child: paleontologist, novelist, journalist, pharmacist, doctor, rock star, teacher, business-type person, and I could go on. However, the commonality was that I always really truly loved whatever it was that I was doing. So even though I may not have ended up with the most glamourous of my many dreams, I do love what I do.

Anyway, those were the big five that came to my mind as I was reading the book. I had lots more dreams too: travelling (I'm doing well on that front) and getting married (it'll happen if it's meant to, I'm sure) come to mind as well.

What were your childhood dreams?