Chasing a Dream

I said this before so I guess its worth repeating. You can't obtain all your dreams but if you focus on a few then you can obtain those dreams. When I was in martial arts my dream was to compete in the World Olympics. That dream died on an ice filled stormy day when I totaled my Jeep Wrangler. My left knee crashed into the dash after losing control of my vehicle and hitting a tree head on. Doctors say my knee needs to completely be rebuilt and currently is out of alignment, facing outwards.

 Even with the injury I painfully made it through and graduated from Basic Law Enforcement Training. My dream while working in law enforcement was to be a gunsmith and work on all the guns in the department. I found out that this type of work was possible and enjoyable after talking to a commanding officer that trained me during my basic training. He was ex Special Forces and learned in the military how to do it. I looked up to him a lot and found a passion to want to learn how to do what he was doing. I also had a dream to teach S.C.A.T. which was the department's hand to hand combat classes. I shortly figured out that I would have to go back to college full time if I wanted to obtain my dream of working as a gunsmith.  After being back in college for a few years, two shows launched on TV that sparked my passion again. "American Guns" and "Sons of Guns" are the two shows completely about gunsmithing and doing it for a career. They take a block of metal and wood and make a gun, or a piece of art in my opinion.

(Disclaimer:I'm not claiming any rights through images or talking about either TV show in the blog.)

So let me back track a moment. I had a life long goal of getting a college education. I hit tons of road blocks and at times, it seemed almost impossible. After several years of extremely hard work, I will have earned my first degree in December of this year. I will finally be able to obtain a life long goal in my life regardless of having Dyslexia.

I think this is why I know I can obtain my gunsmithing dream job.  There are only five major colleges in the country that teach the program. One of the five is in my home state where I live. It is roughly two hours away from our current home. That alone causes some issues. For example, my wife which works in the medical field would have to leave a job she loves and relocate. That bugs me to have to ask her to do something like that. I know she loves me and she would move and change jobs. A huge part of me feels guilty about my request of my family, to stop everything and help me chase my dream and support me. There is a town near the college that is a really nice area to live and we'd be able to rent a home there. We currently have three large dogs and own a home. We would have to sell our current home and possibly have to give our dogs away to good homes. Hopefully we will not have to. It's going to be hard for my wife and I to leave our parents behind on our journey but there is a part of both of us that is excited to live somewhere new. The other huge downside is the jobs for gunsmiths are all over the country so after I graduate I might have to move a few states away from our family.

My wife and I have some huge choices ahead. I'm lucky that she completely supports me in this and she's ready to take the journey with me. Obtaining dreams is never done alone, there are always people behind the scenes.