Dreamers share wishes for 2014 at First Night

If you blow out all the candles on your birthday cake – you get a wish. You also get a wish when you see a shooting star or if you are the lucky person holding the biggest part after you pull the wishbone from the Thanksgiving turkey.

On New Year’s Eve you have one more option to launch a wish or a dream for the New Year:

The organizers of First Night hang a large dream catcher near the Kids Night festivities and provide tags and pens to write down a dream or a wish and hang it on the dream catcher.

Dreamers hung hundreds of tags on New Year’s Eve – here’s a selection of some of the dreams flying around out there (without improvement to spelling and grammar):

“I wish the world was made of candy.” (Our guess? That probably wasn’t left by a dentist.)

There were many wishes for romance – some of the very specific ones include:

“To marry Zac Efron.”

“To have Morgan love me.”

“I wish my sister loved me and treated me with respect and for Bill Murray to be my husband – Murray on!”

“Marry her, have a brood & live happily ever after!” That one was signed NC and NL inside a drawing of a heart.

There were some real tearjerkers in there, too. Reminders of how life isn’t simple and safe for everyone:

“I wish I could see my dad & mom or be able to know where my mom is.” (That just makes you want to give that kid a hug.)

“I wish I had no more nightmares.” (Or monsters under the bed. Please.)

“No more bullies in school.” (A great wish.)

“To never ever relapse and live my life in good health.”

The animal fans came out in force:

“To have a cat.”

“To get a pet chiuuia in future.” (A “chiuuia” is probably not an alien life form, just the child’s spelling of Chihuahua.)

“To have 100 animals.” (This dream included a drawing of a lion.)

“My name is Lara and I rilly want my horse to get betor her name is Aiby.”

Several people hung flying dreams – some were very specific:

“To fly in the TARDIS!” (For the “Doctor Who” fans out there.)

Some people wished for good things to happen to others:

“My grandpa to get better and beat cancer’s butt.”

“May my father win his battle with addiction this new year.”

And of course there were wishes for stuff:

“I wish I got a Xbox 360.”

“To live in a manchin.” (This young writer probably meant “mansion” not Joe Manchin, as in the United States senator from West Virginia. After all, who wants to live inside a politician?)

“I want Minecraft.” (Short and to the point – just know there’s a reason why some parents call the popular computer game “mind crack.”)

Some people wrote small essays carefully filling the tags to the edge:

“I want my husband to have a job he loves, my children to have educational freedom & for myself to make a living wage as an artist! Cheers 2014.”

“I wish for world peace and that my grandpa Dave is okay up there in heaven. I wish for all the soldiers out there to keep fighting for us and for them to be safe. But most importantly, I wish that my family will always be safe and that some day we will all go up to heaven!” OK, that just about covers it.

And finally, there was this simple and earnest dream, written like a sleepy bedtime mumble, a quiet affirmation in the middle of whatever it is that’s keeping us awake at night:

“To keep things going.”