Waking the Dream

Here it is, a Monday morning and I am not sitting at my desk. Four days ago, after over nine years of employment, I left my job. It all still feels surreal.  After all, you can't stay at one place for nine years and not feel connected to it. You can't devote so much time and energy to a job and not feel it is your life.  Still, it was time to move on.

It was a good job, however. I was very fortunate to work for a great company with lots of wonderful people. From the beginning, it was always a little different. Maybe it was because it was a family owned business. Even though there were offices throughout the state, the company still managed to hold on to that small business vibe. I am certain that had everything to do with the family that ran the company. I can never thank them enough for what they've done for me and my family throughout the years. I have also been lucky to work with many good people at my local office. After nine years I have seen many people come and go and I have no doubt that I will keep in touch with many of them. I can not imagine just severing all ties, especially after nine years.

I also met people along the way, who started as customers, but now are friends. I will miss many of them. I spent the last few weeks trying to visit and call some of them. I even ran my old route in Gadsden County for one last time so that I could see the faces of people I had not seen in over four years. It was almost as if no time had passed at all. They welcomed me back with smiles and hugs and treated me the way they always did, like family.  It was fun to catch up with them, laugh about the old times, and share with them my future plans. It seemed like the perfect closure to a nine year career, ending it where it all began.

So, here it is, a Monday morning and instead of sitting at my desk, I am sitting here ready to begin a new chapter in my life. Tomorrow, I return to college for the first time in twelve years. It is a dream that I was not sure would ever come to be. There were times, when I tried to go back and finish but life got in the way. It happens that way sometimes. Children are born, houses are bought, bills are paid, and life goes on. After a while, you kind of forget what it is like to dream. It is not necessarily a bad thing. It is just what happens. You get in a routine and life just moves on. Sometimes, the dream gets left behind. Not this time, though.

This time, the dream is alive and awake, and waiting just around the corner. Typically, we wake up from a dream. We go to bed, lay our head upon the pillow, and we dream. Some of us dream of mythical things, of far away places, or of long forgotten faces. Imagine if instead of falling into a dream, you were able to walk into your dream. This is what my life feels like at this moment. I fully expect that tomorrow,  I will see the world in a whole new light. That the colors will be more vivid, the sun will shine brighter, and the world will seem fresh and new. At the age of 42, and after feeling as if I've been asleep for the last 12 years, this is an extraordinary feeling. The dream is alive and I am awake in it.

-Scott