What does it mean to chase your dreams?  For me, it is not things that are big, expensive and difficult, it is little things you desire to do but often save for “when the kids leave”, “when I retire”, “when we have the money” or “when we have more time”.  What is going to be different about life if you wait on those things?  Will you ever really have the time if you don’t make time? Will you really just wake up one day with a pot of money to spend on whatever you desire?

I started out the year 2013 on a journey to chase dreams that busy, everyday life seemed to push further and further down my to-do list.  It is still a struggle to make time for some things.  And, I also have to fight feelings of guilt for doing something for myself or leaving the kids with grandparents when we travel. But I realized there is no reason to wait on some things when you have the opportunities to do them now.  Putting them off for the sake of doing them later makes no sense…there may never be another chance.  As opportunities are given to me, I take them.

One of those opportunities involves racing. My husband and I are NASCAR fans and have a list of speedways we want to visit.  This has always been one of those things we said we would do “when the kids are gone”.  Last year, we received hot passes to the garage/pit area of Bristol.  Bristol was at the top of our list.  Although I was still fighting fatigue, we made the trip with the agreement that as soon as I got tired, we would leave.  We had a great time and, true to his word, as soon as I started slowing down, hubby helped me to the car and we left.  It was a great time, but we said we wanted to return again (after the kids leave) and experience it from the grandstand.  Fast forward to February this year; we were given free tickets to both the Nationwide AND Sprint Cup races at Bristol.  Again, it was something we just couldn’t pass up. So, we packed our bags and headed to Tennessee.  It was the best race I have ever seen and we had a great time.  These two trips made us realize that we shouldn’t wait until some obscure time in the future, we should go ahead and do what we could now and the rest would come when it comes.  We were able to afford tickets to the Martinsville race and, once again, packed our bags and headed out for a day trip.  It was a good race and we met some nice people. We weren’t able to travel to Darlington, but that’s ok.  It will happen later when it’s the right time.    We will spend the next two weekends at our home track, Charlotte Motor Speedway.  This is typical for us to attend the races here at home, so this year won’t be any different.  After that, who knows?  I have my sights set on Bristol in the fall, but we’ll have to see how it plays out.

Other dreams that I have been checking off my list lately have been seeing my daughter graduate from college.  In another week she will turn 18; and in a few more weeks she will graduate from high school.  I walked my first survivor lap at Relay for Life and attended another Relay event in a neighboring county.  I’ve been taking time to visit with my sister as regularly as I can.  I have purposefully scheduled appointments with new friends to grow our friendships and support each other through survivorship. I had my first mammogram since my diagnosis and it was all clear. And, I have committed to meeting with my survivorship 101 classmates once a month.

It’s not been easy to make time for things.  Life still gets busy and, as the end of the school year approaches, it seems to be picking up the pace.  Both of my kids have had oral surgery in the past month, so that kept me busy for a while, too.  There are many things still on my list and sometimes I feel a bit anxious if they aren’t progressing like I think they should.  I have to stop and remember that God has His timing for everything and I just have to wait on Him.  I am trying to get back to blogging, but every time I try I seem to have a mental block of what to write about.  I also have my study book for my certification exam.  That isn’t going as smoothly as I had hoped either.  Honestly, I am still on chapter two after several months.  There is a ton of information and, if I’m completely honest, it isn’t the most exciting information to try to read.  🙂

I know I won’t accomplish every thing this year.  But, my desire was to begin the habit of taking opportunities as they come, making time to create opportunities and not putting them off until later.  I’m looking forward to checking more off my list.

Praying and Believing…and Chasing!