Dreams

My dream since being a little child was to be a professional basketball player in the NBA. Anyone I ever came across would giggle when I would mention it, the type of giggle that parents give their kids when they say they want to be an astronaut or a President. In fact, this is a dream that wasn’t so outside my reach. Sure, there would be loads of hurdles along the way but the chances weren’t so slim that it was impossible. But nevertheless, I never had it in me to pursue this dream the way it needed to be.

So skip forward a decade and this dream safely out of any possible reach, I decided to channel my love for the sport into a blog – and a new dream was born. First it was over at Oytamuah.blogspot.com and recently on Oytun.co.uk. I have had loads of fun with it and while my impact on the blogosphere was limited to just 2 articles (one being mentioned on CNN/SI, one on the Washington Post) I still don’t regret the hours of time I spent writing up my post-grad thesis lengthy essays. Sure the ad revenue I totaled is a measly $4.41 – which would probably make me the worst paid person in the world…if I had done it as a living. However, there is a kind of pleasure in turning your thoughts into permanent ‘beings’ that can’t be measured by pageviews, # of visitors, or advertising revenue. Recently however, again due to my inability to pursue this dream with the amount of dedication it deserves, I’ve begun to accept that it is time to let this dream die as well.

Dreams while they seem to be lifelong goals or benchmarks to measure ourselves in – are in my mind nothing but stepping stones. Change is so prevalent within us in our lifetime and within our environments – that having one constant dream is a dream in of itself.

Today is the day I decide that basketball shall remain a sport and a source of entertainment for me and nothing less, nothing more. While I don’t have a new focused dream to immediately clang myself onto – I can assure you I’m searching. As anyone who knows me well will know, I’ll never run out of ideas…I just need to pick the right one. But for the third time around, I will make sure its something lasting, and more importantly something I can really dedicate myself to. It’s like the story of the bacon-and-egg breakfast, the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed. It’s time for me to step up, and be the pig!