Manifesto - My Pledge to Stay a Dreamer

Based on something I wrote for a five minute writing exercise at a Leeds Savage Club Writers' Meet. We were asked to write a personal manifesto...this was largely what I wrote. Someone said it was good, so I thought I'd polish it a little, and pop it on the blog:   
     

I used to make plans once, I’m sure, but you learn as life teaches, that they are relatively pointless. Life plans…I’m going to do it this way, in this order…only leads to disappointments. It just doesn’t work like that.
    
So, I've learned to dream instead. If you dream, there is only ever joy, when your dreams come true. You don’t expect, you only hope. And hope is the nicest of things. 
    
I dream a lot now. Big. Small. It doesn’t really matter, as long as they’re there. 
    
I won’t say what I would do if I had the power to change things, because we all do, every day. Small ways. 
     
My work is not about the thousand I couldn’t ‘save’, it’s about the one where I made a difference. Every thirteen-hour day, every 110%, is all and only, about that one.
     
Success is not measured by lamenting my failures; by the money I thought I would earn by now, or the things I imagined I’d have. Success is not things and more stuff, it is just a feeling. It is happiness. So, instead, it is quantified by my achievements, and the things I have learned from my mistakes. And the smiles in my heart.
     
People, are not about the time someone let you down, but about the hundreds of times someone was unconditionally there. People are all about love. And love is difficult sometimes, different every time.
     
Friendship is not about who calls whom most often, but more about understanding, escape, and the scarcity of precious time.
     
Family, does not always mean blood, just the ones where you know you belong. 
    
And love is not in spite, but because, of the beautiful humanity of flaws. It is not what you can gain from anyone, but what you can selflessly give, because somehow...you just can’t help but want to keep giving. About loving everything about someone, because it isn't perfect.

The desire to tell someone they are precious to you, is so much bigger than any bashfulness or pride.
      
Every once in a while, something happens to remind you, that all of this is true. Life is not targets, and numbers, and boxes you can tick - Do I earn...? Do I have...? Should I be...?Would my parents, friends, anyone approve...? No amount of that is a successful life. Life is dreams of where you might be going, and all the joys and lessons of getting there, the most imperfect of ways. 
     
I used to make plans once, I’m sure. But not anymore. 

Life teaches, there are no straight lines.  
And so now, I pledge to stay a dreamer instead.