When I was a child, I wanted to be an archeologist. This was, I suspect, heavily influenced by Indiana Jones, but even when I talked about, I was quick to tell people that I understood archaeologists spent most of their time in the library and that was fine by me. It's what I wanted, I said. I suppose what I really wanted was to be intelligent, or at least perceived as intelligent.
I also wanted to be a writer. When I went to college, I had three very clear objectives. I wanted to be in the college literary journal, Catch. I wanted my own office in the library. And I wanted to graduate Magna cum Laude.
And when I came to Japan or in the first couple of years of coming to Japan, I dreamed of learning Japanese and working at a university.
Now, I suppose I really only want to publish a book on a respectable press. I suppose I want to publish two books: one of fiction and one of nonfiction.
For what it's worth, I don't think dreams are especially useful and would rather just spend my life saying yes to whatever comes my way. Stephen Colbert said that at a commencement at Knox a couple of years ago. You need to say yes as often and as much as you can. And I think Randy Pausch probably agreed.