Behind the Scenes - 302designs

One of the great appeals of the blogosphere is that you are bound to come across people of the same thread as you, whether it be there politics, lifestyle, style of writing, or family situation. In a way this can make you feel unbelievably average or you can take it as a great way to connect with people across the world. My foray into finding bloggers that I connected with started when I was pregnant. Previous to that I had found political bloggers that motivated and challenged me but the personal connection had been minimal. Suddenly, with the idea of starting a family, I searched for other people in similar situations.

PutYourFlareOn quickly became a favorite of mine. Not only was Aimee an expat living in France, but her baby was the same age as mine. Her knitting, photography, parenting style, and writing struck a cord in me and I quickly became a fan.  There was also something nostalgic about Aimee’s blog. She lives in Paris and often writes about places she goes to - it made me miss my childhood home and strangely wish that someday my little girl could have her own memories of Paris.

But besides her everyday antics, Aimee recently did something amazing. She bought a cafe. In Paris. She bought a Parisian cafe.

99.2% of the world dreams of sitting in a Parisian cafe, sipping knock-your-socks-off expresso and meeting the man/woman of their dreams. It epitomizes the Parisian life style, the French laissez-faire attitude. It’s about throaty singers, philosophizing in the afternoon, meeting strangers and sharing life’s mysteries. The French cafe is about sitting down and taking it all in, while not feeling as if life is passing you by, but rather that you are living it, fulfilling dreams. Which is what Aimee’s cafe is all about: a dream that has become tangible.

I suppose this is why Aimee’s recent adventure has been on my mind alot - what do we hold as dreams and what do we hold as goals? How do we draw the line between the two without either become unrealistic or completely devoid of inspiration? I think about these questions while trying to decide the future for myself, my career, my happiness. I’m not sure if making dreams realistic goals does any good, since the idea of a dream is that it is ephemeral, metamorphosing according to our life experiences. Dreams are not necessarily meant to push us or drive us, whereas goals are almost the opposite. They are a way to steer our life, pace ourselves, and motivate ourselves. And do we all subconsciously work our way towards our dreams? I don’t think that’s true or else more of us would say we ‘are living the dream’.

I have no answers to these questions. Aimee’s story touched me and made me realize how much I have ignored my dreams.