Ever since I was little I have always had big dreams. Honestly, I couldn’t even tell you how I came up with half of them but, boy, did I aspire to do such great things.

I remember when I was in elementary school I really wanted to be a lawyer. Everything I saw on those criminal and police TV shows looked so cool, especially when lawyers saved the innocent and prosecuted the guilty. Little did I know it really wasn’t that simple.

When I was in fifth grade I wanted to be the very first female football player. How hard could it be? I was athletic, maybe a little chubby at the time, but athletic nonetheless. I still thought I could do it.

By sixth grade I dreamed of being an astronaut. Every year for one week during school we were taught all about the constellations. How Orion’s belt was made up of three parallel stars and how Orion himself was a fierce warrior standing against great beasts. How hard could it be to touch the constellations myself?

By seventh grade I wanted to do it all. I wanted to put bad people in jail while scoring a touchdown and touching the stars.

Now by eighth grade I got a little more serious about my future. Watching Grey’s Anatomy taught me a thing or two about the medical field and I knew I was destine to be a brain surgeon. Just a few extra years of schooling wouldn't hurt, right?

Freshman year brought along some more reality and I decided I probably just wanted to be a doctor, but not really a surgeon. Maybe I could work as a pediatric doctor or with cute, little babies. That would be so fun.

Along came Sophomore, Junior, and Senior year where I began to think about the dreams I had and the dreams I truly wanted to accomplish. How could I focus on just one dream? Could I do everything I have dreamed of doing?

I look back at all I wanted to be: lawyer, football player, astronaut, surgeon, doctor. These are big dreams I had that really only had to do with my career. As I have gotten older I’ve realized that I never lost these big dreams. The only thing that has changed is how I see them and how important other things in my life have become.

I look at all I want to be now: an occupational therapist, a coach, a mentor, a teacher, a wife, a mom.

I may not be a lawyer, but I will be a mentor to someone and I will teach my own kids how to live with integrity by teaching them wrong from right.

I may not be a football player, but you can bet that I will be a coach in the future and that sports will never leave my life.

I may not be an astronaut, but I will continue to sit back and watch the stars. I will shoot for the moon no matter how old I get or defeated I feel and I will always be a fierce warrior like Orion.

I may not be a surgeon, but I will teach those around me how to heal and how to be happy. I will mend broken hearts and glue back together broken homes.

I may not be a doctor, but I will prescribe bigger dreams to my kids, grandkids and so on.

Ever since I was little I have always had big dreams. Honestly, I couldn’t even tell you how I came up with half of them but, boy, do I aspire to do such great things.