Dreams Are for Havin'

Today, we were watching a biography of Sally Ride, and taking about the concept of glass ceilings, as the term came up twice in the video.

I don’t remember how we got to this, but there was a comment about the idea of a boy who likes something that’s more typically thought of as feminine. One of my girls dismissed that quickly. “That’s not for boys!” she scoffed.

I had to stop her. I told her that she had just been defending girls' rights to have dreams of greatness and leadership. Those are ideas that are worth fighting for, and have been hard fought. But if we fight for girls' rights to do things that not everyone thinks of as for girls, then we also need to be open to boys' rights to go against that predefinition as well. It’s the same fight.

We often don’t get to define our own dreams. What pulls at you, what you love, what you want in life aren’t always your choice. We can’t let other people limit our dreams, and we sure as heck shouldn’t limit others’.