My time is now. At least that’s what I keep telling myself. A little pep talk now and then is always helpful. If I’m ever going to dream big, now is the time to do it. There’s the practical approach, work towards your dreams in your spare time, trying to scrape together the minutes here and there, always feeling guilty for holing up in your office instead of spending time with your loved ones. That’s the slow way to achieving your dreams, and it doesn’t work.

I think you have to jump off a cliff if you want to chase your dreams. You’re either going to fly or you’re not, and there’s only one way to find out. Not exactly the kind of talk your practically-minded parents want to hear, but it’s not their life. It’s my life. And why should I spend my life doing less than what I want to do?

My generation is motivated to live life on our terms. We’re not interested in serving corporate America if we don’t have to, and so we won’t. We’ll find our own way, thank you very much. So we could probably use a dose of reality, but that’s our mindset.

Chasing dreams sounds so romantic. Idealistic. Perfectionistic. And maybe that’s what I’m talking about. Hope for things unseen and unrealized. My dream involves writing. I want to write. A book would be ideal, but I’m more realistic than that right now. I think I want to freelance. I like the idea of being my own boss, working at home, setting my own schedule, writing about what I want to write about. Obviously that’s the glorious side of it. There’s also the endless tax forms, the pitiful income, the lame assignments, the endless clamoring for new jobs, and the joy of rejection.

In some ways it’s a toss up, but I think I can handle rejection. And lame assignments are par for the course when it comes to the real world. A pitiful income is what I have now, so it’s not going to get much worse. Well, it could, but that’s what unemployment is for, right?

So if you’re out there and want to make someone’s dream come true you can make things easy on me and write me a check for a decent yearly salary. I’ll spend my days freely writing, maybe even work on that unrealistic book. Consider it the [insert your name] Fellowship. You’ll be famous. And you’ll have helped a poor kid. Did I mention I have a family? A poor kid and his family. Did I mention we’re trying to buy a house? A poor kid and his homeless family.

So what if random donors don’t fall out of the sky? I can try, can’t I? The least I can do is look dumb. Done and done.

I’ll probably keep looking for that 9 to 5 job. Sometimes you have to play your cards anyway and see what happens. But we’ll see if we can’t pursue the glamorous freelance career. I’ll have visions of working in my underwear dancing in my head. Hopefully you won’t.