“That which is dreamed can never be lost, can never be undreamed.” – Neil Gaiman

It was a dark and stormy night. No, I’m just kidding. But it was night though. A cold, winter night. You know, the air is so cold, it rubs like sandpaper against your throat. You can feel it going down your lungs.

Me and my mother were taking the tram home after having visited my grandfather.

That’s when I decided to become a writer. It just happened.

I had an idea and that night I began writing. This idea soon became a dream.

My most important dream: to become a writer.

Unrealistic as it was, I just did what I knew to do, which was to write and read. I didn’t know who’d be willing to publish me or why or when or even how.

I just knew that a writer writes.

And that was what I did.

In order to keep my dream from withering away, I wrote. I wrote for all the reasons you can imagine. I wrote because I had to get those words out of my head, I wrote for fun, I wrote because I wanted to impress people, because I wanted to make them cry or laugh. I wrote because I wanted to leave something behind, because I wanted a really long Wikipedia article about me. I wrote for fame and glory, I wrote for money. I wrote because I was heartbroken, I wrote because I knew no one was going to write my stories for me. I wrote because I was starving. I wrote because I was alone.

I wrote for the entire world, and I wrote for just one person.
I wrote because I knew my stories would never come true, and I wrote because I hoped that someday they would.
And a few years later I was holding my first book in my hands.

Make no mistake about it; this world has been dreamt into existence. By men who believed in the power of their ideas. By men who persevered and endured.

Anyone who tells you differently has lost hope for their own dreams or the courage to chase them.

Either way, don’t listen to them.

Listen to your heart.

Chase your dreams mercilessly. Do not look back, do not let doubt creep into your soul.

Dreams do come true.

But…

You have to believe. And put in the work and the time and the sweat and the tears and the sleepless nights.

Maybe the only dreams that come true are the ones we make come true.