butterflies.

I have spent my life chasing dreams. I build my life from fantasy; from childhood fairy tales to frivolous teenage years spent wishing on stars - imagination has become my business. It is the strongest aspect of my character.

When I was a little girl, I ran the alfalfa fields of my father's farm - chasing butterflies. Armed with a makeshift net I captured my beloved creatures and secured their captivity in a mason jars beside my bed. Over the course of the evening their wings would wilt and become powder at the base of these jars and though I understood death, I was never heartbroken over the demise of my beloved creatures. Their failure to survive in captivity only fed my understanding that the following day would bring more fluttering flies for me to chase. So I would wake up each morning and set off on another adventure to catch butterflies. After an afternoon under the running beneath the sun, I would place my new friends in clean mason jars and set them on the ground outside of our Tack shed. It was beneath this shaded building that I would bury the deceased from the previous day. Looking back, I see this practice as almost sacrificial. I was showing the living a flash of their awaiting future. I always wished that one, just one, would make it through the night; but even if one did, just one, I wouldn’t have stopped my hunt. One victory would not have ceased any of my future attempts at success, not then and certainly not now.

This imagination of mine runs rampant – I have built queens upon kings and constructed the success of my future from the fruit of my dreams. Though impulsive at times, and not necessarily known for making the best decisions, I have spent the last 24 years chasing butterflies. My fearlessness of the unknown, coupled with my unshakable optimism, has created a shield of invincibility between myself and failure. Though always an option, and sometimes an unavoidable outcome, I have never allowed the possibility of defeat to dampen my desire to succeed. There will always be another afternoon to chase ambition under the summer sun – dreaming doesn’t stop after a single success - it continues. What stops is the desire to dream, and the motivation to run.