Following your dream

Well I have an apology to make for submitting this last week! You see every Tuesday I visit a friend who broke her leg , before Christmas! She had just moved into her dream cottage when a few days later she fell down stairs..a bad break I'm afraid. So all her possessions were still boxed... meaning that for a few Tuesday's now I've been going over to help put items away. However her dream remains intact and despite the trauma she is happy. That's what dreams do. Sometimes we never fulfil them, but they still make us happy thinking of them.

I have had the good luck to fulfil many of mine. At the age of 53 I passed NCCP 1 and 2 to become a professional ice skating coach. As a teenager it had been my ambition to teach this, but parental disapproval and an accident forced me to reassess my career choice. I became a teacher of Dress and Design/ Textiles, and I didn't regret it. Later illness made me reassess again and I went into the holiday business...so it was that this more relaxed lifestyle made me feel much better and gave me the opportunity to do the coaching course.

My husband passed away just over 5 years ago and I made an expedition to visit his relatives in Switzerland. Well, as a hillwalker and teenager I'd said I wanted to see the Alsp before I died ! That dream was fulfilled in 2010. My desire to travel became overwhelming and I subsequently went to Bulgaria, Norway and many trips back to Switzerland. I'd only ever been on a coach trip to the Rhine many years before.

I also drove an HGV truck on an experience day..something I'd always wanted to do..I gave myself this day out to celebrate becoming an advanced driver.

Last year was to see the very pinnacle of my yearning ....when I was 18 I'd read a book " a Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains" by Isabella Bird ...a book that I read every year ( along with many of her other travel books). So I booked a log cabin in the National Park in Colorado, and along with my son we walked many of the trails that Isabella had ridden, and visited many of the places that she had been. Truly a lifetime's dream!

I'm not being 'mean' for I loved my husband dearly ( today would have been our anniversary) but his passing has given me the opportunity to chase dreams....even to make up new ones. Never stop dreaming......

Thanks for reading. Kath Curtiss