Let Them Dream the Biggest Dreams
by: Kate Sanchez (The Ranch Wife)
I got choked up two days ago. I’m not one to cry often, or be emotional much at all, but I got a lump in my throat on Thursday. My husband and I had finished working a few horses, and our little girl sat tall in my saddle, with a handful of mane, grinning from ear to ear, my hand upon her leg. Still shy of ten months old, I put my hands up to reach for her and ask if she wanted to get down. She simply smiled, then gave me a look that told me I was crazy. That was it.
I think every parent has ideas, hopes, and dreams of their own for what their children will become. But in our case, no matter where life leads our little girl, I want it to be with that same smile she gave me that day. Of course, I’d love for her to follow in my footsteps and have a huge heart for horses, and learn to rope like her dad, but if she doesn’t, that’s okay too! You see, too many parents focus on what they want their children to be, some extraordinary expectation that few could ever live up to. Often, I’ve seen people push their children into a life that they themselves could not every obtain. But in doing so, kids lack passion. They lack the heart it requires to really excel at anything in life. By forcing these kids into certain roles, adults often do them an injustice.
Now I’m by no means saying that I’m a superior parent, at all. But what I see the world needing more of is young people with a heart full of desire and a mind full of purpose in the activities they take part in, jobs they’re hired for, or dreams they choose to pursue. Ranch kids are inherently put in a position to deal with a life full of cowboys, cattle, and horses from an early age. Like it or not, they get drug around feeding cows, gathering big pastures, cooking for the crew with mom, and peeking over stalls at horse sales. But it’s not something I see the parents of these young people forcing them into in their down time, instead they’ve seen a lifestyle unfold in front of their eyes that they yearn to have for themselves one day. No, it will never pay what being a lawyer or doctor will, and it’s not a very glamorous or easy job, but as you watch kids of all ages, cowboys and cowgirls alike, not only get together, but also get along to rope the dummy, you quickly see the kind of kids that are being ranch-raised. Again, I’m not boasting or comparing, but they’re the best kind as they choose to love this life as much as the folks around them do.
If in sixteen years, our little girl’s biggest dream is to become a ballerina, I’ll be thrilled. If she wants to be a scientist, I’ll be ecstatic. And if her heart is content in being unsure of the future but knowing that your true calling in life comes in the form of a lump in your throat, then I’ll forever feel like I’ve done my job. Whatever she pursues, and where ever her wild imagination takes her, I will always hope that she does it with the same smile she had two days ago, the one that told me she didn’t want to get down from my horse just yet; and every day of her life, we will let her dream the biggest dreams.
