A Love Letter to Dreamers
December 5, 2022
Writer: Lily Miro
Editor: Mary Wurster
“And the realists? Well without the dreamers, they might not ever get off the ground.”
-Cameron Tucker, Modern Family
Dear Dreamers,
I know sometimes you don’t think the most logically. I know that you often space out. I know that you stay in bed until noon because you were busy thinking about who would star in your biopic. I know that every once in a while you find yourself staring at a wall wondering what lurks in the 80% of the ocean that has not been discovered instead of doing your homework. I know that you waste your hours lying on the bedroom floor pretending that your ceiling is the night sky. I know that people tell you your ideas don’t make the most sense. I know that you get called unrealistic. But I also know that you are creative, compassionate, and inspiringly insightful.
I, myself, am a dreamer. I have realists in my life who don’t understand me and probably never will - but they have taught me some of the most important lessons in my life and I love them for that. I also have friends who are dreamers, and we have some of the most deep and visceral conversations — but we also forget to blow out candles and often can‘t get from point A to B without getting lost. The dreamers need realists, but in a world that caters towards realists, dreaming is one of the most underestimated superpowers — realists need dreamers too.
As a dreamer who grew up very shy, I would often find myself lost in my own imagination instead of interacting with the real people around me. My mom, a realist at heart, would always push me to put myself out there, and I desperately wanted to. But I found I was always the most comfortable when I was alone and daydreaming, and I couldn’t understand why. It wasn’t until I discovered that my dad takes solace in his imagination as well, that I realized that maybe my daydreaming could be used to my advantage.
My dad’s imagination is a never-ending force that causes his mind to wander throughout the day, pulling him into daydreams he isn’t afraid to hide. As I tried to reconcile what dreaming meant in my own life, I wondered if there was something wrong with the two of us. I wondered why we couldn’t bring ourselves back down to Earth and make decisions driven purely by logic, like my mom and so many others could. I wondered why we couldn’t be real.
However, I began to observe that dreaming is what has made my dad who he is, and good at what he does. As a professional screenwriter, he uses his imagination to enhance his work and fuel his creativity. And his creativity is infectious. While sitting around the dinner table, my family and I discuss his most recent characters and his hypothetical direction for his next movie. The dining room comes alive with the sounds of invention and the joy of inspiration. We talk about the world in both its truest and most fantastical forms, and the dichotomy only makes us more excited. I found my own passion in creative writing, while dreaming up a new idea for a poem or mapping out a new short story. A gleaming white page represents the highest form of potential I’ve encountered in my life: a space for me to bring to light what was once concealed.
My friends still make fun of me for staring into the distance aimlessly, and I have been called a space cadet more times than I can count. However, what I think a lot of people fail to realize, is that for us dreamers, it's within those “unwanted” day dreams that our imaginations propel us towards creativity and productivity.
My dad unknowingly taught me the most important lesson I have ever learned: that it’s okay to leap off the ends of the Earth with your imagination, and that it may even be the only way to land on solid ground. So, to all my fellow dreamers, don’t hide your dreams behind a veil of realism. Take that leap.
Sincerely,
A fellow dreamer
Image: Ryan Hammel
