Christmas eve this year, I sat on the bed wrapping gifts and chain-binging Christmas movies. One was a Hallmark story where a big city gal goes to back to her Southern hometown for the holidays. While the characters were awkwardly churning through lines that someone spent five seconds writing, the romantic lead said he was from Oregon. He also pronounced it correctly. Most people not from here say “Ore-gone” not “Ore-gun.” So then I had to google him to see if he’s really from here. Alas, he is not, he’s an LA person. However, his IMDB page says that he’s married to a girl from my high school. What? We were in drama together and she went off to California to be an actor.  She has been in several movies and has an IMDB of her own. Very cool.

As we go through life, we experience lots of ups and downs.  Dreams and goals can get smaller and safer every year if you’re not careful. It’s totally reasonable at my age to be practical. In a week, I am likely vow to “eat a vegetable” and “pay off the second car loan.” But those big wild dreams that we had when we were kids are at risk of dying on a dusty shelf of yesteryear. Most young people that head off to Hollywood do not make it into pictures, but some do. Not everyone who moves to Nashville cuts a record, but some do.

I visited NASA while I was in Houston hanging out with my cousin where met an astronaut in the gift shop. Apparently, he had applied to NASA fifteen years in a row until he finally made it and worked on the International Space Station. We have a signed copy of his book on the back of our toilet. 

This week, the last days of 2025, I dare you to write in the comments at least one impossible, I mean, important dream that you’ve carried since you were young that you still want to see happen. It’s got to be awesome, and something you still think you can to do. We can encourage each other this year to go for it.