Don’t Hold on to Old Raisins
The HeSo Project“What happens to a dream deferred?” Langston Hughes‘ iconic words have stuck with me since I first read this poem in high school. I thought about his question the other day, when an acquaintance of mine was telling me that she decided to give up on her dreams. Normally my first reaction would be to say, “noooo,” but instead I just listened. “I feel guilty giving up because this has been my dream since I was a little girl,” she said to me. “But I have so many other things I want to pursue now.” I thought for a moment then asked, “When was the last time this was still your dream?” She laughed. “Probably back when I was a little girl.” In that moment I realized that we do not betray our dreams by pursuing something different, we betray our dreams when we ignore ourselves and forget to ask, “Hey, I’ve grown, I’ve changed, have my dreams changed too?” We are not the same person we were ten,
