Oops...I did it again.

Remember this? Whoops

Well, I did it again. The pitch was low and inside...again...and well, it was yelling at me to hit it really hard. And I did. And it flew really far. And the bases were loaded. Yup, grand slam.

"Kara, did you know it was gone right away?"

"Yeah, I could just feel it off of the bat."

"I knew it was gone as soon as you hit it."

In all of my days of playing baseball and softball, I never hit it over the fence until last year. I never had that exciting feeling of watching the ball sail out of the park. Every time I hit a home run in the past, I had to work for it...by running really fast around the base paths. And then, usually, if I did get a "home run", there was usually some type of error associated with it...so, I guess some of them weren't real home runs.

A friend of mine recently pointed me to the video of a college professor with terminal pancreatic cancer. The video is of his last lecture, in which he talks for about an hour and a half about childhood dreams. I realize it's a long video to watch, but if you have time, I really recommend it.

Anyway, hitting the home run made me realize one of my childhood dreams...I always wanted to hit the ball over the fence for a grand slam. Here's the list of childhood dreams I can remember:

I wanted
...to be Princess Leia.
...to be a professional baseball player.
...to hit a homerun.
...to hit a game winning grand slam.
...to be pregnant and have a child.
...to have a really cool car.
...to be a rock star.
...to be Robin from Batman and Robin.
...to be a track star.
...to run in the Olympics.
...to fly.

Some might say there are a lot of dreams that are opposite one another. Perhaps there are. I guess Princess Leia would never be able to be a professional baseball player...but I bet she could shoot a mean phase pistol.

In the video, the professor mentions brick walls, and how to get around them. One thing he never really mentioned completely, though, was adjustment of those dreams to better suit the current situation. Adaptation.

I was never Princess Leia, but I have dressed up as the 90's version as Lara Croft. I also feel like I'm a fairly strong woman like Princess Leia. We'll mark this one checked off.

I'll never be a professional baseball player. I realized this in my youth when I never got that big. My dad used to try keeping my dream alive by telling me of a 5'5" second baseman that played for the Kansas City Royals back in the 70's, I believe. In my case, though, I knew it was never going to happen and I simply dropped this dream.

Up until I hit the home run last year, I'd never really been close. It felt really awesome to do it then, although I still tried to maintain a low profile about it.

Grand slam. Done.

I'm never going to be pregnant, but I can still have a child. We'll see how this dream progresses over the next 5-10 years.

Cool car. Check, it's cool enough.

Rock star. Umm...no, but I still like singing in the shower and in my car on occasion. Oh, and I got to perform on stage during both Ms. TGSF pageants. Hmm...well, let's just leave this one open...even though I can't sing that well.

Robin. Hmm...well, I dressed up as him one Halloween when I was a kid. The female version of Robin in the 1986 graphic novel, The Dark Knight Returns, added to the dream. I suppose, in a way, just being a good person is the best any of us can do to be our own superhero.

Track star. Ehh...close enough.

Olympic competitor. I wish I would have been good enough, but reaching that goal would have been incredible.

To fly? Well, I realized early on that flying around like Supergirl just wasn't going to happen. I have flown on plenty of airplanes...both large and small, and rode co-pilot on a very small plane once...such that, I was almost scared out of my pants as we blindly descended though a sea of clouds. One day, I think I would like to try free fall parachuting...but I'm still not sure I could make it past the airplane door.

There are a few other dreams that I haven't mentioned here...like saving the world, or going into outer space, or writing a book or a screenplay, or scoring the winning touchdown...but there are some dreams that are meant to stay dreams and others we possibly work on down the road. (I have to have something I do while sleeping, right?)

I guess one of my most important dreams, though, was to be myself. That has probably been the dream I'm most proud of, and yes, it's checked off.