While most people often have seemingly unreachable goals, Boston recently welcomed a conference that encouraged women to take the first steps toward those ambitions.
The DreamsCo foundation held a “dream tasting” event for women on Saturday at the Westin Boston Waterfront, presenting a novel idea that exposed women to an array of adventures, with the hope of fulfilling their passions.
With stalls from several companies and organizations that included travel agencies, dance studios, photography studios, improvisation comedy groups, writers associations and several other similar groups, the workshop encouraged participation in as many activities as possible.
There was guided instruction such as dance lessons, a seminar on how to reach one’s full potential, a PolyGlide synthetic ice rink for ice skating lessons and speakers ranging from authors to comedians to businesswomen.
Marci Nault, the owner and founder of DreamsCo, talked about how the organization had started a few years ago when she first decided to make a list of dreams that she wanted to accomplish for herself.
Nault discussed how she had never really thought she would accomplish any of them and had now already reached 97 out of the 101 that she listed. She went on to talk about the general perception of dreams in society.
“So when I talk to women about their dreams, they look at me like, ‘Well, I give to everyone else’ or ‘I have to put my career first,’” Nault said. “Even young women are pushed towards their career these days in college and making it happen and what the next steps are.”
She then addressed how this common belief might not be so simple.
“But maybe we’ve got it wrong,” Nault said. “Maybe our lives our supposed to be, are meant to be, lived from one dream to the next.”
She explained how the idea for the workshop initially came to her while tasting wine in Napa Valley.
“I was just thinking about how you taste an ounce before you buy the bottle,” Nault said. “So I was thinking, what if I could put all these activities, all these dreams that you wanted to make come true in one place and people could taste their dreams and see what they’re really passionate about while being able to help the small businesses of all the communities.”
She also talked about her company, DreamsCo, and where she wanted to take it in the future.
“DreamsCo is really right now just the event, but what I want to do is turn it into a place that is a safe haven for everyone to go after their dreams, to be able to come and talk about them, to be able to find people who want to do the same things that they want to do,” Nault said.
She mentioned how money didn’t need to be a restriction when it came to following one’s dreams.
“You can make it happen, it’s never about the money,” Nault said. “Money is always the excuse to why you can’t. It holds you back.”
Michaela Maguire, 22, of Revere, talked about how the day’s experience had been for her.
“I tried ice skating on fake ice today and it was so exciting,” Maguire said.
She also described how an attending travel agency convinced her to start fulfilling her dreams of traveling the world.
“There is a travel agency that’s here, and looking over their brochures has given me a desire to travel,” Maguire said. “I’ll definitely go on a trip through that agency someday.”
There was also a panel of speakers that spoke on several issues, including women in politics and media, and how it was “never too late” to get published as an author. The latter speech was given by the author Randy Susan Meyers, and she also had some advice to give.
“Ultimately you end up spending more time on the work you do than you would with your boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse or family,” Meyers said. “So make sure your work is something you love and can live with for your entire life.”
Nault concluded by talking about how life is dynamic and always changing, just like dreams and aspirations.
“We must follow every one of them,” Nault said.
