Childhood dreams of success

Who is that little lad in the photo? What dreams did he have in the innocence of childhood? What caused him to daydream of expectant excitement that life had to offer?





Well you probably guessed that the photo is of myself. I was influenced by many things as many children are. The 1970s were full of cool, hip and trendy famous people. I idolised the likes of George Best of Manchester United Marc Bolan of T Rex. If you asked me back then what I wanted to be when I grew up, I'd have told you that I wanted to be a professional footballer or a pop star. As children, we only see the facade of happy, confident and beautiful that is promoted by the media of those stars. I longed for excitement and adventure that I found in the book of Enid Blyton with The Secret Seven and The Famous Five. On reflection now, I believe I was smitten by the emotion that was portrayed (and that I felt) in all of the above. I also had many other dreams and desires that seemed impossible at the time (probably due to my low self esteem). Getting married and having a family was one and in that I achieved a dream I've been blessed with.



"What's brought all this on?" I here you ask. Well, dare I say it, it's considering what makes a TV programme such as X Factor so successful. There is no getting away from it, every time I watch this series, I get taken in by it. OK, so I can see through the obvious staged managed area's of it where the early rounds pretty obviously have contestants "screened" before going before the judges. Why else would the better candidates all conveniently appear "at the end of the day".

The programme has me hooked for no other reason that the raw emotion displayed in these folk pursuing their dream. In many ways, watching this show is an outlet for me. I'm able to shut myself away in the bedroom and shed tears along with those that both win and lose. For me, it releases the stress and pressure in life. Music itself does that in many other environments. It has me wondering if...... maybe sometimes, the ability to empathize with the emotion of somebody completely unconnected with ones real life somehow allows the pent up emotion trapped for the hidden reasons of our own lives can be released in a safe and healthy manner. People throughout the world mourned for the sudden and unexpected deaths of Princess Diana and in more recent times Steve Irwin by those in Australia.