I went to see The Castaways at Urban Coffee Lounge in Kirkland tonight. It’s a ukulele band that does cover songs from the ’80s. I’ll give you a minute while you read that sentence again. They’re fabulous. You wouldn’t think a bunch of ukuleles and some drums could sound so cool, but they do.

The lone woman in the group is a girl I knew when we were wee things — I have a picture of her at my sixth birthday party. She was always very creative and funny. She’s a well-known travel  writer and blogger who gets paid to write about her trips to Africa or Antarctica. You’d think that would be enough for a girl, but lucky her, for the last few months she’s been part of this band.

It was great to see her having a blast, breaking her first string in a professional situation, joking about the next part of the rock n’ roll fantasy — lighting a uke on fire, or trashing a hotel room? It made me think of the way that the dreams of our youth can come true later in life and in a way we might not expect.

When I was a kid I had the same dream I have now, to be a writer. I get paid to do it, so in a way my goal has been realized. I love to sing, and a few times a year I chant Torah or Haftarah at my synagogue. It’s kind of like performing. But if I was clearly thinking about my future self, it usually involved a popular book or two, not writing for arcane professional healthcare publications. And by singing I mean being paid for it. But Pam’s experience makes me hopeful that even at 47, whatever dreams I still have from childhood are still achievable.

What are your childhood — or childish — dreams do you have? And what dreams have already come true?