What is your dream?

[Joseph]

What is your dream? it can be martial arts related or not, but what is it and why?

-ps please be discriptive, no oh I want ____________.

[Berserk]

My dream was to be a very rich and powerful man.

Now, it is to survive, lol.

[southpaw0727]

My dream is to one day own and run my own dojo. Every since I was a kid I knew martial arts was what I wanted to do with my life. I love the time I get with Isshinryu. I can be "mostly" happy in a dojo. That would be my why.

[larry nicholson]

Southpaw, I too dreamed of this, but keep in mind, if you do, let it be a lifetime . Because opening a dojo, and then finding out later, that you do not like teaching,on a regular basis. is detrimenal to our art. Many, people think they want to teach then find out the hardship, the total dedication, to the art they teach isnt for them and they, leave. just leave students hanging.

[Berserk]

Good point. Teaching is not easy, at all. I tried teaching one of my friends, who seemed 'interested'. After just two sessions, I lost it because he's a very lazy fellow. He was picking up fast but showed no dedication, whatsoever. I shouldn't have volunteered to teach him for free.

Blah.

[southpaw0727]

I fully understand what you saying my sinsei moved to another town and me being the only one qualafied I took over the dojo and love it. If the "mostly" part is is what scared you I know nothing is perfict and we will have hard times is all I ment by that.

[SheepDog]

Hm - my dream would only vary slightly: Win the lottery (or marry a rich widow?) and custom-build my own dojo, then teach all comers for free. (Actually if my wife reads the parenthetical above, she might be the widow!)

And of course it almost goes without saying the custom-built dojo would contain an indoor pistol-rifle range, suitable for teaching tactical rife/pistol/shotgun applications...

Alas, I realize also that the lottery is really just a tax on people who can't do math (statistics, specifically) - so since I don't play it that source of funding will never happen!

[Sylexis]

Aside from the usual dream of being financially independent (marry someone rich, inherit money, win the lottery, strike it rich as an entrepreneur, etc etc) I'd like to work as a project manager for a non profit company. I understand giving back to the community in your spare time, but actually being able to give back as my 40+ hour work week to me is something I just want to do without needing to do it to live off of.

[SheepDog]

Yeah this large corporation I worked for (for 17 years) required us to do community service, I think it was 16 hours a year (time paid by the company, so it could hardly be called philanthropy). It was always eye-opening. One of those "there but for the grace of God go I" kinds of things.

The most heart-wrenching of my experiences was working with autistic kids. This one kid latched onto me, would talk to me. They said he never talked to anybody before. So I went back on several successive weekends on my own time, worked with him. Discovered he could read a little (he was 9) - stories from picture books and the like; I'd have him read to me. People were amazed.

When I showed up one Saturday and found he'd been sent off to a foster home/halfway house, it was like being punched in the solar plexus; I'd never felt pain like that before or since. It was before I had kids of my own, though, and made me want to be a Dad. Also gave me tons of respect for anybody who can do that sort of work all the time, paid or not.

[Rathryn]

This might still be my youth or my incurable idealism, but here goes...
Living in a virtually self-sufficient commune, run by consensus democracy and as much off the grid as possible. Which would include a centre with loads and loads of information for the public and free classes (which ones depends on the people living there). And if we're going full-on technicolor dream with Hollywood-style special effects, the commune would also serve as a non-profit distribution point for music, art and literature, made by the members of said commune.

Yup... I dream big... lol.
I'll stick with finding my own place first and slowly getting off the grid, lol.
Little patches for veggies, solar-panels, maybe even a well in the backyard.

[Marcus]

As easy as it is for me to answer this question it isn't easy. Mine is to die with a legacy. I don't mean be rich and/or famous (although I won't turn money away, but you can keep the fame.. haha)

I hope to use my martial arts school to do so too.

About two days ago, someone found me on MySpace that knew my grandparents before they past. She told me how she moved to town with nothing and was living out of her car. She went to the unemployment who sent her to my grandparents at the family restaurant. She was a white lady and when she walked in there was nothing but black people there. She said she remembered thinking that there was no way that she'd get that job, but not only did she get the job, but when my grandfather asked her where she was living, she said in her car until she could save money. They gave her $500 to go pay for first months rent at a place. She talked to me for almost an hour about them as if they were her parents and she was part of the family. (She was in a way) She told me that the things she learned because of them, she still teaches her kids today with those same values and such. She still thinks of them on a very regular basis even today and she hasn't seen them in almost 30 years. Even in their graves, my grandparents are VERY well alive today because stories of this level of influence and love they gave to all and a dime a dozen about my grand parents.

I want to live forever, even from beyond my grave. I believe in faith, hope and charity.. Charity can live from beyond the grave, thus letting one live forever... having a true legacy. Even if people don't remember my name, but my work influences someone some where for generations to come. I hope that my passion of martial arts and love of life impresses on someone like so and 30 years after my death someone is talking to my grand children telling them how great I was for them and their life.