I've been ill over the last few days, and in between naps, I've been catching whatever's on cable. This time around, I caught the majority of Disney's High School Musical, a movie which I recognise as being something which would have appealed to me were I in the relevant age group.

Other than making me think the obvious (Vanessa Anne Hudgens, with her mixed ethnicity, is amazingly pretty, and has added further credence to the theory that we should all try and mix up our gene pool a little), it made me think about the dreams I had when I was a kid. You know, the secret dreams and ambitions which we always wanted to happen, but never really tried for.

Me? I have had several over the last few years of my teenage life, but only one which I can recall which has stuck with me ever since I was a little kid all the way till the almost 27 year old I am today. And in spite of every Disney film's inspiring message of how dreams have no limitations, and how you can be anything you want to be, if only you believe in it hard enough, I have my doubts, being the cynical adult that I am, having gone through enough to know the difference between where determination can get you, and when you should just give up.

Like most little girls, I liked singing. And like most children, I was very shy about singing in front of other people. I loved watching each and every Disney animated feature, from The Little Mermaid all the way to Mulan, and learning the songs from each film. And I fell head over hells in love with musicals when I watched my first one, Les Miserables, at the age of 14. You should be able to guess what it is I wanted to be when I was a kid by now. Yes, I wanted to sing... be in a musical, in a band, just sing.

It's kind of strange, if you look at it. I'm one of the few kids I know my age who has never taken a single piano lesson, or any other musical instrument for that matter. I don't know how to read notes, and I can't play anything to save my life. My singing goes off the moment I realise someone is listening, and I definitely can't sing as well as my friends do when we go to karaoke.

There definitely isn't anything I would change about the way I grew up. I may not have excelled at anything in particular while in school, unlike most of my friends, but nevertheless, I was still good at some things, rather than just be Jane Average. And now, even though I'm not in the most exciting of industries, I still am enjoying at least parts of what I do, and I know I do it well.

Still, watching High School Musical tonight made me feel a little sad at not being able to be that young teenage girl who still believed that anything was possible as long as I put my heart into it.