In my former life, you know, the one before I went through delivering two boys - I was a middle school Latin teacher. When I tell people this, they often respond, "Isn't Latin dead?" And, I always laugh. But, to me - it was far from dead. See, my dream in life, since I was a child, was always to teach Latin. Why? I couldn't tell you that, except for the fact that I struggled, struggled with Latin during my childhood, so I knew that there must be a better way to teach it. And, not to toot my own horn, but I was a really fun Latin teacher. I made Latin about their life, and interesting! We sang The Beatles, Justin Bieber, and Paul Simon in Latin; we researched the difference between schools in Ancient Rome and now; we made movies and put on plays.

When I closed my eyes at night, and thought about where I most wanted to be in life, the answer that always came to my brain was just that - teaching Latin. I loved working with my students, being in the classroom, and seeing students succeed. There's nothing better than that "aha" moment in a student.

After I had my first son, I went back to teaching, and suddenly found myself with a dream change. Whereas I used to love going to work and adored what I did, I no longer wanted to be away from my son, and found myself struggling to get through my lessons. It's a hard fall down when you realize what you thought about yourself and your dreams has changed. After a lot of thought, I decided to leave teaching and focus on another career choice. It was incredibly difficult to give up on my dream, but as I learned and want my sons to learn, you can have many, many dreams in life.

Now, I pursue another dream of mine: helping small businesses get their name out with social media and public relations. I am a natural born networker and love making connections to help people out. My son, who's 3, knows that I work in social media and just the other day, I heard him ask his babysitter, "what's your social media?"

Dreams change. Dreams can overlap. Dreams can dance around each other and intermingle until you find yourself having a completely new dream. What's the answer to all of this? Follow that feeling. Follow that dream which makes your fingers tingle and your brain spark. As a parent, we have dreams for our children - my dreams for them will inevitably be different than their own dreams - but, more than anything, I want them to know that if they have a dream, they should pursue and follow it - Fac et Spera - Hope and Do - don't give up on your hopes - but DO them - follow, action, chase. And, of course, I'll be right behind them with the camera (maybe 2), running along and following their dreams, too.

Bottom photo by Molly Leon Photography