Tell Me Your Childhood Dream… Mine? To Be a Mouseketeer On The All New Mickey Mouse Club

When we’re kids, people ask us all the time: What is your dream? What do you want to do when you grow up? However, as we age, the number of people who ask us these questions diminishes. Until it seems there’s no one left asking. And I find that incredibly sad.

Part of Romantic Living, at least according to us here at The Silver Petticoat Review, is to keep that childlike wonder of beauty, imagination, and looking up at the stars, alive!

RELATED | Our New Manifesto: How to Live a More Imaginative, Romantic Life

So, today, I thought it would be fun to explore childhood dreams. And how I’m making one of mine come true. And how you can do the same!

Childhood Dreams

Now, I know it’s not easy to hold onto our dreams. As we mature, age, grow up, we often forget our dreams because we’re busy facing the harsh realities in our own lives. And, frequently, our dreams seem out of reach. Even impossible. So, how do we recall our childhood dreams if we’ve forgotten? And how do we make some of them come true?

Sometimes, all it takes is for someone to ask us about our dreams for us to remember a long-forgotten imagining. As the years pass, our childhood dreams slip away like a nightly dream when we wake in the morning. But if you write down your sleep dreams as soon as you wake or talk about it, you remember.

Our life dreams work in the same way! If you write them down or talk about them with others, we hold onto these ideas. Of course, action and work are then required to reach your goals.

What is Your Dream?

So, I ask…what is your dream? Or more specifically, what was one of your childhood dreams? No matter how silly? Have any of them come true? Truly, I want to know. I want to know because I care. And, also, because I wish more people would ask each other this. Just because we’re adults now, doesn’t mean we should lose our childlike wonder to believe in dreams, imagination, and the powerful messages of fairy tales.

I also believe when we ask each other about our dreams, we become more empathetic and understanding – which leads to a better world!

My Childhood Dreams

I had many childhood dreams – some of which came true, others I’m still reaching for, and then there’s some I inevitably outgrew! (Thankfully, I do not still wish to marry Macaulay Culkin like my 9-year-old-self dreamed of after watching My Girl!)

I dreamed of being a child actress like Shirley Temple, a dancer, a cheerleader, a mother (I imagined adopting unwanted children), a wife. I dreamed of having a golden retriever. And I dreamed of writing amazing stories, books, films, and plays! I dreamed of traveling around the world to every country. I dreamed of living on the coast with cliffs, meadows, streams, and flowers. And I even dreamed about how I could make everyone around me happy. I wanted to make my family’s dreams come true. I could go on and on!

The Evolution of Dreams

As I grew, my dreams constantly evolved as I also evolved as a person.

My ultimate career dream (at least in part), today, for instance, is to be a successful author who also runs a boutique publishing and production company. But because I work so much, it can be easy to push aside my goals and dreams. And sometimes I even forget about them.

Now, today, I could tell you how I’m working toward my ultimate personal and professional goals. But instead, the one dream I want to talk about is a fun one! Because it’s not just our BIG childhood dreams and goals that are important but our day-to-day daydreams and imaginings that are also significant to revisit. As it helps us to be more positive and hopeful – like we were as children.

The MMC (AKA The All New Mickey Mouse Club)

“If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started by a mouse.” – Walt Disney

It seems appropriate that in a discussion of making your dreams come true, that I look back and discuss the Mickey Mouse Club, a show created by Walt Disney. A man who believed in imagination and making dreams a reality. Plus, it’s the 90^th anniversary of Mickey Mouse!

So, what then, is my “fun” childhood dream I’d like to revisit today?

When I was a kid, I dreamed of being a member of The All New Mickey Mouse Club (nicknamed the MMC)!

Yep, I wanted to be a Mouseketeer.

Now, in reality, I didn’t have the “skills” to actually be on the show. (I’m referring to the 90s series rather than the 1950s one.) You had to be an amazing singer, dancer, and actress. And while I was “okay,” I wasn’t great! So, this childhood dream was mostly the youthful, knowingly unrealistic daydreams of a young girl. Which are some of the most enjoyable things to imagine!

Anne Shirley: Don’t you ever imagine things differently from what they are?

Marilla Cuthbert: No.

Anne Shirley: Oh Marilla, how much you miss.

(Anne of Green Gables (1985)

But why the MMC?

My love for the MMC came from a deeper place than young tween crushes or fun pop music to listen to. Which I imagine is true for many fans of the show.

In my case, I wanted to be a storyteller. (Looking back, maybe I wanted to be Walt Disney who first created the Mickey Mouse Club from his own imagination?) I wanted to embrace my creativity and be around other kids my age who loved to “create” or perform in various ways. The MMC represented a beautiful ideal.

I grew up with a musical father who traveled around the East Coast as a performer. And everyone on his side of the family were musicians. So, I had a special love for performance. Plus, my siblings and friends would also regularly put on plays or skits that looked similar to an MMC skit.

So, my childhood years were kind of like being a member of the Mickey Mouse Club (or even like the March sisters in Little Women putting on plays in their attic)! If a kid was the one writing the skits, that is. I also took dance as a kid and loved to perform. Cheerleading was my thing in middle and high school. And in college, I was nicknamed the Britney Spears girl because I could dance like her. Pop music video dancing was my style once upon a time.

A ‘90s Kid

Now, I didn’t watch the MMC from the start when it premiered in 1989. I was a little young then. I did see an episode here and there and I liked it, but it wasn’t until 1992/1993 that I finally began to really watch. And when they introduced the younger cast who were closer to my age, I was hooked.

For a few years in my tween and early teen years, I watched the MMC every day. All the way up to when the final “new” episode aired in 1996. Whether it was new episodes or repeats I recorded on VHS. I learned many of the dance moves and was an MMC “grassroots” marketer telling everyone (despite their initial disbelief) that the MMC was cool! It only took one look at the hunky Tony Lucca singing a love ballad to convince many a young teen girl that I wasn’t making this up.

Today, you’ve probably heard of many of the members of the club. Britney Spears. Christina Aguilera. Ryan Gosling. Justin Timberlake. Keri Russell. J.C. Chasez. Dale Godboldo. Rhona Bennet of En Vogue. Jennifer McGill. Hallmark fans would recognize Nikki Deloach. Well, the list goes on! The MMC was a group of super talented tweens and teens. They sang, they danced, they put on skits. They even had their own TV show, Emerald Cove, which could give Saved by the Bell a run for its money.

RELATED | Check out my interview with Mouseketeer, Jennifer McGill over on Reap Mediazine

Not only that, the cast was diverse…in the nineties! So, it felt all inclusive. Like no matter what your race, religion, gender, etc. was, you could be a member of the club. And since I faced bullying in my tween and teen years for being “different,” MMC was the perfect escape for a kid like me who loved creativity. I could watch teens being surrounded by other teens who were accepted for being artistic. And that was awesome!

The #MMC30 Anniversary and Reunion

So, what does any of this have to do with reaching a completely unrealistic daydream from when I was 11?

Recently, I discovered that members of The All New Mickey Mouse Club (aka the MMC) were planning a 30th-year-anniversary reunion in May of 2019 – and that everyone’s invited!

If you know me, you’d know that outwardly, I’m a serious Dana Scully or a sassy, independent Elizabeth Bennett depending on my mood. But inwardly, I’m as impassioned as Jane Eyre. But it takes a lot to get me excited.

So, when I smiled and felt a thrill of excitement that showed outwardly, that’s when I knew I had to go.

Me, after hearing about the MMC reunion:

via GIPHY

Which brings me to one way you can embrace your childhood dreams:

One way to reach your childhood dreams as adults is to follow your “thrills!”

Embrace positive things that make you happy. Find what makes your heart soar or that speaks to your soul.

In a way, by going to this event, it would be making one of my fun childhood dreams come true! In a more realistic, adult way, of course. While it’s too late to literally be a Mouseketeer (though being one in spirit counts in my book!), going to the reunion would be the next best thing.

Related | The ‘All New Mickey Mouse Club’ Celebrates 25 Years: Why It’s Important

I also happen to be a member of “Always in the Club” on Facebook which connects viewers of the show with the Mouseketeers in an inclusive way. Fans and Mouseketeers coming together and supporting each other as equals.

The Club even supports and donates to charities. Something I’m all for!

ABOUT #MMC30

Former Mouseketeers, Dale Godboldo and Chasen Hampton (no affiliation with Disney), are putting together a reunion from May 18-19, 2019 at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando. On the official website for the event, it reads that Dale and Chasen are “calling home cast members of seasons 1-7 to reunite with fans where it all began – celebrating the common bond between them all and the extraordinary impact that the show has made on popular culture around the world.”

Proceeds from the event will benefit various charities including Always in the Club Foundation, OnePULSE Foundation, and Give Kids the World.

At the event, there will be a cast reunion panel, autographs and photo sessions, auctions, special performances, an after-party with live ‘90s music, and more! So, a convention for MMC fans. What could be better? Oh, wait! Did I mention Joey Fatone from N’SYNC was hosting the event?

My twin sister and I (yes, she loves the MMC as much as me) bought the VIP packages which are now sold out.

But if you love the show, you can still go! And it’s incredibly affordable. So, check out the website to find out more details and go if you were a fan! Maybe we’ll see you there.

Summarizing – How to Reach Your Childhood Dreams

“Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, dreams are forever.” – Walt Disney

1. Think about your dreams.
2. Write them down in a journal.
3. Talk about them with others so you don’t forget.
4. Embrace imagination.
5. Ask others about their own dreams. Don’t make it all about you! Helping others will help you to be more compassionate and empathetic which helps create a more positive world where embracing constructive dreams can exist.
6. Follow your thrills!
7. Believe in your dreams and in yourself.
8. Bring hope back into your life.
9. Throw away cynicism.
10. Embrace the optimistic traits of being a child and bring that out in your adult life.
11. Have gratitude. Recognize and be thankful for what you have now. Be thankful for your dreams and imagination.
12. And most importantly, have the courage to take action and LIVE! Find creative ways to make the dreams that still mean something to you, happen! And if they don’t or can’t happen, be thankful for your ability to imagine and dream. As Walt Disney says, “laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, dreams are forever.” And in that way, your dreams can never fail.

So, that wraps up my thoughts on Romantic Living and childhood dreams! In the comments below, let me know about one of your childhood dreams! Also, were you a fan of the MMC? Tell me all about it! 

Featured Image Credit: Disney Pictures

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