Don’t be sorry for your dreams

Life has an interesting way of giving us unexpected signs about what truly matters to us at different stages - signs that often turn out to be the exact answers we’ve unconsciously been searching for.

Mine found me at the U.S. border when I was visiting New York for the first time during the Christmas season.

I wasn’t planning a speech. I had no idea what to expect. But when it was my turn to hand over my passport and answer the question about the purpose of my visit to the U.S., something in me completely took over!

With all the picturesque details and emotions pouring out, I started describing how for years I had been watching Christmas movies and imagining myself experiencing it all in real life with my own eyes, not just through a screen. I talked about how fulfilled my artistic soul would feel wandering through art museums and galleries, and how even the hotel I chose was part of my NYC dream - a loft-style stay with Manhattan views in Queens, exactly the kind of place you picture when you think of New York.

You should have seen the officer’s face :D

As he stamped my passport and handed it back to me, he looked me straight in the eye and said, in the calmest and most serious tone:

“Don’t be sorry for your dreams.”

I could almost hear what he didn’t say:
“Girl, why are you apologizing and justifying yourself?”

And in that moment, I asked myself, why was I doing that?
Not just for this trip, but in my life in general.

Why was I apologizing for wanting to be an artist, designer, speaker, writer, mentor - all at once - and letting my work speak for itself instead of constantly explaining and justifying my existence?

Why was I apologizing for wanting more than a safe, mediocre life chosen out of fear?
(And trust me, I have a LOT of fear.)

Why was I even apologizing for wearing beautiful clothes?

Why was I apologizing... for my dreams? For my life?

It’s been four years since that moment at the U.S. border, but I remember it as if it happened yesterday. I still come back to the wisdom of those simple words.

What have you been apologizing for without even noticing?

Apologizing has become such a normalized habit that we barely question it, yet it’s anything but harmless.

For me, the past years have been a slow but steady process of daring to be myself without explanation. Saying what I believe in. Wearing what I love. Changing and evolving - especially this year, when I finally broke out of the suffocatingly narrow niche of technical interior sketching that had held me for years. I was terrified to expand beyond it, terrified of disappointing expectations others had placed on me.

But here’s the truth: you can change. Always.

And when you finally break through those patterns, cages, and limitations, an indescribable sense of freedom opens entirely new horizons in your life. You realize that your biggest, wildest dreams are actually… possible.

So this is the mindset I want to step into 2026 with, and I hope you will too:

Never be sorry for your dreams.
Never be sorry for who you are.
Never be sorry for what you want OR what you don’t want.

The only permission you’ll ever need comes from you.

Happy holidays ✨

With big drawing energy,
Anna at @andshedrawsbig