How to Write About the Time Your Dream Came True

Whether it was getting the lead in a school play, landing a job you wanted or getting into your first-choice college, most people have set specific goals and reached them through persistence and hard work. These stories of making plans to achieve your deepest desires make strong topics for personal narratives. Through brainstorming, consideration of narrative elements and reflection, you can write an essay about reaching your dreams that will inspire and motivate readers.

The dream you discuss in your essay can take many forms. It could be about the time you got something you really wanted, won a coveted prize or honor or won the respect of another person. In any case, your dream should be something you wanted badly enough to commit yourself to achieving your goal. You can brainstorming topics by writing down examples of times when you reached objectives you desperately wanted to meet. For example, you might choose to write about how you made your dream of buying your first car come true through persistence and frugality.

According to the Purdue Online Writing Lab, a personal narrative includes the same elements of a fictional story, including a plot with rising action, a climax and falling action. A good way to include the element of plot is to describe the process you went through to reach your goal. For example, you could write about what made you first want the car, the personal sacrifices you made to save money and how you kept yourself motivated to achieve your dream when challenges and discouragement got in the way.

Aims Community College Online Writing Lab states that a personal essay focuses on detail and description. Just as fiction writers create the world of their stories through language, you can use detail to describe the people, places and emotions that bring the achievement of your dream to life for readers. For example, you might describe doing yard work for a neighbor on a sweltering day to make extra money, the clink of coins as you put them in your savings jar and the feel of the wheel in your hands as you finally drove the car home.

Good personal narratives work toward a central purpose, according to the Purdue Online Writing Lab. As the story winds down, your essay should leave readers with some idea why achieving this dream was so important to you. You can use your conclusion to explain the significance or illustrate it through a brief description or scene. For example, your new car might have given you a new sense of independence. Therefore, your essay might end with you going on your first drive down a long dusty road, blasting your favorite music out the window.