I know that statement most likely sounds trite and cliché. But it’s true. Never give up on your dreams. Some of them may never come true. In fact, it’s possible that none of them may ever come true. But you will never forgive yourself if you don’t at least take a good shot at them. I’m in the process of doing just that. It took me awhile to get some baggage out of the way, but I’m in hot pursuit of my dreams now. I just couldn’t forgive myself if I were to come to the end of my life without ever having really reached for the things I want.  I would much rather have tried my best and failed than to have never tried at all. Debilitating shyness, an ill-fitting marriage and fundamentalist Christianity all three conspired to cause me to put my dreams aside for many years. Now, at the age of 48, I’m actively pursuing several paths that interest me. But even at this later stage in life, I believe that the possibilities are boundless. And I want to help others see the same. Even if you don’t have the same or similar dreams, maybe you could still be encouraged by the words I share here. Thankfully, with how available technological resources are today, it is so much more possible to create your own paths to success than it ever has been. This is true of the passions I have and I’m sure it applies to some others have as well. First, as you can see here, I have a passion for writing. I just love sharing ideas through the written word. It may sound silly, but I want to change the direction of this world, if even in a small way, with what I write. I like to think that I have a somewhat different perspective on things, but then again, many do. But for some reason I find myself somewhat alone in my beliefs many times. I seem to be in the middle between two extremes. Maybe that gives me a perspective that’s helpful. The readers will have to be the judge. In addition to essays and opinion pieces, I’ve also written my first novel. I hope to self-publish the book soon. This one is actually semi-autobiographical. They say you shouldn’t do that with a first novel, but I had to write what I know. And I do know my own life better than any story I could dream up. It was somewhat cathartic to write. And doing it made me actually feel like a writer. The only hold up now is money. I need money for the cover art and to have it encoded or whatever they do to make it readable on Kindle’s and other devices. But it will happen soon. I have ideas for other novels that will be written in the future. In addition to being able to self-publish books on Amazon, there are just so many other ways of getting your writing out there today. There is simply no excuse not to. For so long the only way to make this happen was the traditional way of submitting your manuscript to a publisher and hoping that someone liked it. Now you don’t have to do that. You can put it up on Amazon, promote it yourself and see what happens. But at the very least the book will be out there. In addition to the writing, I’ve always wanted to make a movie. The whole process has always fascinated me so much. I put it off for years as being a foolish dream. And it probably was a foolish dream in the old days. But today one has the ability to shoot rather decent looking footage rather cheaply. It’s entirely feasible to shoot your own movie on a budget of next to nothing. After it’s made, if there are no other options, I’ll just put it on YouTube. If nothing else, I’ll get the experience of making a film. Going hand in hand with film making, I also have an idea for a television show. As with the film, that is entirely feasible with the technology that exists and the outlets to get the show out there in front of an audience. The passion that drives me the most is music. I play the guitar. I dreamed in my youth of fame and fortune. But, mainly because of the shyness, that never happened. That proved to be a good thing though. I have so much more passion for the actual music than I ever did back then. My goal now, is to at least have some sort of band at some point. The shyness was always the chief impediment when it came to the music, and it still is today. I still don’t feel confident enough in my playing to seek out other musicians, but I’ll overcome that at some point. Have I achieved any of this yet? The answer to that is primarily no. But if you are reading this piece then at least something is moving forward. But I’m not doing this for a living yet. At the moment, I work in maintenance in a factory that produces little plastic bottles. Sure, I know that at least some of these goals may seem outlandish for someone like me to achieve. But I just couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least take a shot at them. When it comes to creative pursuits, we live in a golden age. It is more possible than ever to get your work out there. What are my goals in all of this? I would love to at least be able to make a living creating. Writing opinion pieces and essays seems the most feasible, but I’ll take a shot at the other stuff too. I would prefer to make a good living. But I would absolutely settle for the experience of simply creating my works and putting them out there to be seen, or heard. There’s something really satisfying about that. The point here is to never give up. The possibilities are endless. Age doesn’t matter. Impediments don’t matter. Don’t let your life pass you by without at least taking a shot at fulfilling your dreams. Find your passion and walk in it. I am. Never give up on your dreams.