Do dreams come true?

In my 26 years on earth, I learned at least one fact: life is short.  I blinked, and I was a married woman with a career.  Now that I am more than 25% through my life, and I need to ascertain that I do, get, see, feel, and live everything that I want.

On June 26, 2010, James and I decided to take our life into our own hands and create a lifetime “dream list.”  What are dreams?  Are they something we sometimes think about, but always believe they will never happen?   We decided to drop our attitudes about believing all our dreams that would never come true.

  

We spent several hours brainstorming everything we want in life including: vacation destinations, family, career, community service, houses, extreme dreams…everything.

While we were documenting dreams, I look at James and said: “My biggest dream is on that will never come true; I want to meet Oprah.  But, since this will never happen, I am going to leave it off the list.”

James replied: “Kelley, write that on the list!! What is the point of creating the list if you do not intend to include your biggest dream?"

He was right, and I proceeded to write: “*meet Oprah*”  Not just go to a show, I wrote: “*meet Oprah*.”

This is a picture of a snippet of the dream list created in June!!

Flash back to November 20, 2009: I was driving from work to a physical therapy appointment when the radio show announcement in the background brought me to tears: “Oprah Winfrey’s show will end after 25 seasons.”

I could not believe my ears.  I never watched television until I moved in with James (who loves TV!), but throughout my lifetime, I always committed to Oprah.  Her show taught me some of the deepest and most precious lessons in my life.  Furthermore, she inspired me to create a life of optimal health and wellness, ultimately leading to my nursing specialty.

Immediately, I knew that I must thank Oprah for her tremendous influence on my life.  I planned to write her a “thank-you” letter by the end of the 25^th season. 

In early August, I received a mass e-mail from the Oprah.com website (of course I am a subscriber!)  The subject line read: “are you an ultimate viewer?”  I thought to myself, “why yes I am!”

At that moment, I decided to compose the deepest, most heart felt letter to Oprah.  I wrote everything I wanted to say to her as if she was sitting right next to me. I copied and pasted the letter into multiple electronic fields allocated for specific “ultimate viewer” promoted questions- breaking all the rules.

Did I ever believe anything would happen to me after submitting the letter? No.  My absolute, number one priority was that Oprah would maybe read and accept my sincere thank you.

Much of what happened between my submission until today, I cannot share.  But, the point is: I was invited to attend the Oprah Winfrey show audience. 

The day I received the invitation, I cried publically at Montez catering in Bangor.  Some women sitting behind us thought I won the lottery!

On September 9, 2010, I attended what I believed to be an ordinary Oprah Winfrey show taping.  When I arrived, I was shockingly surprised.  With an audience filled with “ultimate viewers,” we watched the season premier show together.  The experience was remarkable, better than I could have ever dreamed.  I lived a moment I never believed possible. 

Oprah’s big surprise solidified my big dream: I will meet Oprah Winfrey.  Furthermore, on James’ list of dreams: visit Australia.

Another snippet of our dream list!  I couldn't figure out how to rotate- but, you see the "Visit Australia" 

Do dreams come true?  I was a naysayer: “I will never meet Oprah.” But, now I am a believer.  When your dream is yours, not your parents, your friends, not your boss’, not society…but, when your dream comes straight from within your heart and soul and when you take time to think about the dreams that you really want to live in your life….they will come. So, start dreaming, and start living.