Dream a Little Dream…

In the Times Square Visitors Centre in New York, past the New Year’s Eve Ball, the rented Broadway costumes and the Naked Cowboy merchandise, you will find the Wall of Hopes and Dreams.

I had only stepped inside as a respite from the heat and to grab a bottle of water, so I hadn’t expected to be captivated by something such as this feature wall covered in coloured pieces of paper.

On New Year’s Eve every year, pieces of confetti rain down on the revellers in Times Square and those who are sober enough to remember write down their hopes and dreams for the coming year on these coloured squares of paper which are then displayed on this wall for the whole of that new year. I suppose it works in a similar way to the prayer lanterns in many Buddhist nations; you write down your prayers and dreams in the hopes that that physical act alone can help you realise it.

What a great idea this is. Instead of trying to set yourself a punishing New Year’s resolution which you are bound to break within a matter of days/weeks/months, you instead anonymously write down something that you hope or dream will come true over the course of the next year and then nosey visitors to the city get to stare at them. Like me.

I found it fascinating to read some of the hopes and dreams that people had written at the end of 2010; it was like getting a small glimpse into a stranger’s life and forming an opinion of these faceless people. Some dreams were mundane and others just downright stupid, but others were intriguing and it was entertaining to try and imagine the emotion that each person felt as they wrote their dreams on the confetti as the party continued around them.

“That my boyfriend will ask me to marry him”

“To do better in school”

“To help out Mum and Dad more”

“That I’ll win the lottery”

“That the world will find peace”

“That I’ll get an iPhone for my birthday” (I told you some were mundane)

It got me thinking back to where I was on NYE 2010 and what, had I been handed a piece of confetti that night, I would have written on it. And there would have been only one real hope for the coming year….

“To be able to travel more”

Of course, back then, I would have highly doubted that it would be possible. On NYE last year I was more confused than ever. My house was up for sale but I had no clue how or where I would move to and how I would even afford a new place. I had no idea whether my job would be secure and I had not long returned from a life-changing trip that had left me with a longing to go out and explore.

And yet funnily, if I had seen my piece of confetti up on the Wall of Hopes and Dreams  this week, I would have smiled. Because now I know that my dream for 2011, although not necessarily fulfilled completely this year, is well on track to no longer being a dream.

I wonder how many of those people on the wall can say the same.