my kids are big dreamers. my oldest plans to live in paris someday and my youngest has big hoop dreams (wonder why?). but the dreamiest of all is probably my middle child. for the longest time she has been saying that she wants to live in new york city, when she grows up. her aspirations have been: attend nyu, attend julliard, own a boutique, and perform on broadway. she even had a i <3 ny party for her 6th birthday. so imagine her excitement when she got the opportunity to participate in a summer intensive at the joffrey ballet school, which would put us in nyc for two whole weeks!

after months of anticipation, we arrived in nyc and checked into our accommodations.  i had explained to her that this was not to be a luxurious vacay, but rather a working trip. therefor her budget was to be “not-quite-starving-artist.”  we ended up at a hilton property that fit the bill, more than fine for NYC standards and clean.  (our first room was kinda awful, but that’s another story–maybe later).

the first point of business was to find a character skirt that we would need for class the next day.  i had researched some dance apparel shops and found one that was about a mile away, but we had passed an american apparel en route to the hotel and i guessed they might have what we needed.  so we set out for our first NYC walk.  mind you, we’ve been to new york before, but somehow this was different…just the 2 of us…southern girls turned city girls for the next 2 weeks.

if you know nyc, or even if you don’t, you can probably guess where this post is going. but, just in case, i’ll direct you to 2 clues:  1) the title is she hearts new york {question mark}, rather than she hearts new york {exclamation point}  and 2) the photo above, which is worth a gazillion words.

within one block, this sweet child having seen a man sleeping on the street, having eyed several shady characters, having dodged countless number of pigeons and having held her breath for most of the time to avoid second-hand smoke; decided new york was not the place for her. and i’m pretty sure she meant it!

but she didn’t run for the hills.  she was still excited about joffrey.  so, every morning since then we have walked to the dance studio and every afternoon we have walked back: up 2 avenues and over 6 streets.  we have seen things that have given us a chuckle and things that have almost brought her to tears (a 3 legged dog and a homeless amputee).  most days she has gripped my hand the whole way.  but yesterday she let go and walked with an nyc swagger that would make her jersey dad proud.

i’m still not sure, if gotham is in her future. she was told that it is the dance capital of the world. so if dance is in her cards, she might need to learn to exist here. but, i think she now appreciates the charm of the southern suburbs and is curious about finding another city that suits her.  i told her that chicago is a cleaner version of a big city and that seemed to peak her interest.  she also hasn’t ruled out going to hollywood and writing major motion pictures or video treatments (the non-smoking environment of california is certainly alluring).  who knows, maybe she’ll shift from entertainment all together.

nonetheless, what i heart is that she dreams and dreams big.  and i know that spirit will take her anywhere she wants to go.  when she gets there i hope someday she’ll look back on the 2 weeks she spent dancing in new york and remember fondly that time she took her first true bite of the big apple.  we’ll just have to wait and see whether she’ll go back for seconds.  sometimes the idea is better than the reality.

have you ever realized a dream, only to have it be different from how you imagined? i’d love to hear about it in the comments.