Don’t Dream And Tell

Remember in Cinderella, the first Disney version, when she had a dream she believed was spectacular, and when one of her animal friends asked what the dream was about she replied with something along the lines of “Don’t you know that when you tell a dream, it won’t come through?” At the time, I had thought “It's just a cartoon, it can’t possibly be true” but life has a funny way of making you feel less smarter than you actually are, as it took several dreams that didn’t come through for me to learn.

In my adolescence, I had been so full of life, optimistic to the core, never considering any possibility that wasn’t according to what I hoped for. I was, and still am, an imaginative person, I’d build castles and tell my friends about it.

Once I had imagined leaving Nigeria on a scholarship, I told my friends about it, and from then on, I was called ‘Catherine the Dreamer’. I knew they mocked me, like Joseph’s brothers, but I wouldn’t let that faze me. I believed in my dreams without a doubt. My belief in my dream was deeply rooted that when it did not happen at the time I thought it would, I told myself “can always be tomorrow”.

Retrospectively, I must have been able to push through life the way I have done so far only because of that mantra because I learned to take things with ease, not be in a haste about most things and not let disappointments become my burden so much that it weighs me down.

However, when none of my dreams seemed forthcoming, I felt I needed a wake-up call. To quit dreaming. It was about that time I came upon one of Einstein’s quotes that has now become one of my favorites “Imagination is better than knowledge”. I can’t say I truly have an idea of what that implies, but if it fuels my mind to keep building more castles, I agree with Einstein.

I soon became a dreamy teenager, but I never learned, as I kept on telling more people of my dreams. I did not think a thing of it other than how interesting I must seem to them, at least so I thought. I only began to learn to keep my big mouth shut when I realized how quickly I get uninterested in a dream once I’ve told someone of it. Then I was reminded of Cinderella’s wise words.

As proof that telling another ear of your dreams can jinx it, I once had a dream come through, one I told no one about. In secondary school, one of the stories we read was about Eze and the magic ring. Eze was a naughty boy who wouldn’t read his books, but as exams approached he became scared of failing, but still wouldn’t read. One time he was sent to the market by his mom, but instead of purchasing what he was sent, he got a magic ring instead, because the trader had told him it would help him ace his exams, of course it was just an ordinary ring and Eze failed his exams.

That was a story to teach us about moral conduct, but I couldn’t help but imagine one day on my way home from school that my fairy godmother would appear to me and give me a ring that would make me a better cook than my mom so she wouldn’t have to keep scolding me in the kitchen.

It was an absurd dream, hence why I told no one, but fairy godmother or not, ring or not, my dream had come through one evening. I was now an adult and Mom came to visit, so I made bitterleaf soup for her. Prior to this, she had been complimenting me about my growth in kitchen affairs, but on this particular occasion, she said “I think you cook better than me now”.

There was no greater pride in the world at that moment.