Sailing is an excellent example. For years I've had this daydream of sailing. Pretty white boats with blue and red striped sails. White shorts with a blue and white striped shirt and cute little boat shoes. Afternoons would be spent on the boat and evenings at a fancy resturant on the dock (of course there'd be time to change into a new lake outfit). So I signed up for sailing lessons downtown. 
My first day I was so nervous I'd be out of place in my jogging shorts and sneakers, but excited to meet my instructor who I was sure would be a young handsome lawyer who drove a BMW convertible.
My first day I was so nervous I'd be out of place in my jogging shorts and sneakers, but excited to meet my instructor who I was sure would be a young handsome lawyer who drove a BMW convertible. My first day I learned that my instructor is an older IT specialist who rides his bike to the dock everyday, and none of my classmates wear fancy clothes - or have any more experience than I do; and our boat is not prestine white - but rather pales blue with slightly yellowed sails. Did I mention I get seasick? Yup, I began serious questions about the dream. But after our lesson we all went to a cute little beach bar near the dock. It wasn't fancy, but it had fun music and brightly colored decorations. My classmates were actually a lot of fun - Cherie is a single mother who's trying to figure out the whole dating scene again, JD and Inthasar are husband and wife who are so funny and open and kind. They're taking care of JD's 92 year old father. Everyweek they'd bring him along and he'd stay on the dock to fish. When he'd catch one he'd shot and cheer to us as we were setting up the boat - it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. He reminded me of my Grandpa Piper. Anyway, and our instructor had fascinating stories about his life travels (he is originally from Greece).
Well, after that first class I learned to take dramamine before each lesson and tried to get to know my classmates instead of judging them. Sailing became so fun - one week Inthasar almost crashed us into another boat, and I nearly tipped us over while tacking; the next week we had to practice "man over board" with a floaty. Camille (she joined us a little late) had a hard time getting the floaty, so after scraping the cement wall of the river a man on the dock fishing had to fetch the floaty and throw it to us. I think we were rather amusing to him.
The weekend in between my two week course I went with our RS on a sailing trip at Solomon's Island. Where we actually got to sail on a big white fancy boat. Like the sails automatically rolled out (opposed to the ones I was use to that you had to unroll yourself and push them up)! We had a great time - the view was gorgeous, not to metion the boat. And I really didn't have to do anything but sit and enjoy. That was what I had always pictured sailing to be. But somehow I missed my little blue boat, and the yellow sails, and the wooden tiller. I even missed my class friends, who I never thought in a million years I'd have anything in common with and I missed the challenge of working together to keep our boat afloat and away from larger objects. My whole point in all of this is it made me realize that it's not all the bells and whistle and images that make life enjoyable. I realized that even though for some reason my mind likes to picture beautiful people and things in my daydreams - life isn't always picture perfect. It's raw and challenging and full of unique experiences and quarkie people. And that the imperfection is what makes life so enjoyable - it's what we laugh at; what we grow from. And somehow all the imperfections melt into the amazing experience that's even better than what we imagined.
