Turning a Dream Into a Reality

Sometimes a window of opportunity presents itself and if you blink you could miss it.

We've been talking about our passion for Africa for years. Simply going on holiday there hasn't been enough for either of us and returning to the UK, at the end of any African holiday becoming more and more of a wrench. Yet we did nothing about it, although this was largely due to the fact that one of my children was still at home.

I've had this dream since the first time I set foot in the Masaai Mara nearly 15 years ago and fortunately it has also become Sean's dream after his first visit to S Africa in 2005 for our wedding. Luckily he fell in love with Africa too.

I've noticed that people often put off their dreams - maybe it's because they appear to be too far away, too remote, too untouchable. Or perhaps it's the perception that it could be too difficult to make happen. Perhaps it's down to fear or circumstances. Or, it could simply be down to our self belief, and doubts about having the relevant experience. Whatever the reason, there is a real danger of not, at the very least taking the initial steps into turning a dream into a reality.

Certainly in my case, I had practically wiped the possibility of making it happen from my mind. And then my youngest decided that he was going to defer his university place and have a gap year BUT he wanted to be independent and move out. Suddenly the possibility crept back into my consciousness. "It's now or never", was one of my thoughts. The other was, "do I really want to be sat here in 20 years regretting not having at least tried to make it happen".

In both our minds we had created all sorts of obstacles and barriers, so after a sole searching discussion we agreed that we had to at least take some action. The first step was to make a list our favourite places. And the next step was to make contact. At this stage some unhelpful internal dialogue started up, little voices whispering all kinds of doubts & fears and as I noticed how these started to make me feel, I managed to overcome them with positive action.

I chose to send out just one email (to test the water) to one of our favourite camps. It simply stated our passion for Africa and our desire to run a safari lodge and our belief that we had the skill set to do so. Within 20 hours we had a response - it just so happened that our email coincided with this camp looking for a new management couple. The discussions began and within 6 weeks we got confirmation that we were going to Zambia for the new season which would start at the end of February 2011.

When that email arrived in my inbox, all I could do was jump about squealing with delight! The only words that I could get out (much to Sean's annoyance), were I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, OMG! IT REALLY, REALLY IS HAPPPENING! Followed by more squeals of delight, until Sean grabbed me by the shoulders and asked me to please calm down and share with him whatever it was that had make me react this way. Words cannot describe how we felt. Even now, and we're doing it, it can sometimes feel quite unreal.

It's a very exciting new chapter of our lives, with new challenges to be faced daily and of course dealing with being so far away from our family and friends.

And the really scary thing is that we very nearly didn't do anything about it. Once we'd made the initial decision to take some action, the action became the plan and then the ACTION = DREAM = REALITY!