Reviving a Dream

As a teenager, I couldn’t wait to leave the small town I grew up in. I was going places, doing big things. I was going to conquer the world! I started out with the big plan of moving to the big city, getting a job, and saving for school. I would go back after one year and sail on through with no problems. 

Then life happened. 

I got a job working at Burger King, got married and started a family. At any given time, there was always a reason I couldn’t shoot for my dreams. We couldn’t afford school, I didn’t want the kids in daycare, I was working two jobs… the list went on and on. Eventually my dreams got smaller and smaller. Instead of being in a position to help others, I was simply trying to make it to payday. About 4 years ago, I decided enough with the excuses. I was going to go back to school; by then I had forgotten most of my dreams, but knew that I couldn’t continue to barely scrape by. My dream was simply to be able to go shopping without having to check to see if we had enough in the account to cover the weekly groceries. That dream has been enough to carry me on through rough semesters, sleepless nights, and finals. 

Until now. 

As I was watching the YouTube video of “Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture” I thought back to a conversation I had with my sister a few years ago. She has a son who is mentally and physically handicapped. She was expressing her frustration at the few resources available to him. Since she and her husband both work all day, he has nothing to do but sit at home and watch TV and surf the internet. She had checked into different programs in the area, but there were no recreational activities that he could attend during the day.   We talked about how amazing it would be to be able to open up a facility where caregivers could feel safe sending their charges for a day of fun activities. A break in the monotony. Eventually, maybe we could offer occupational, speech, and physical therapy. This was such an exciting prospect! Until “reality” hit. Neither one of us had any expertise, the finances, or the knowledge of how to even begin a project like this. Eventually the dream died out. 

In his video, Randy made a comment about brick walls. He said, “the brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” I finally put two and two together. I have let the brick walls keep me out for way to long! I can help so many families by opening up a center for disabled adults. There are walls in place, but maybe, just maybe, they can be broken down.