“Don’t let anyone steal your dreams. Follow your heart, no matter what.”- Unknown
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| Dream Again |
During a fund raiser, in San Ysidro, he rises and tells a story. It all
goes back to a story about a young man who was the son of an itinerant
horse trainer who would go from stable to stable, race track to race
track, farm to farm and ranch to ranch, training horses. As a result,
the boy’s high school career was continually interrupted. When he was a
senior, he was asked to write a paper about what he wanted to be and do
when he grew up. “That night he wrote a seven-page paper describing his
goal, of someday owning a horse ranch. He wrote about his dream in great
detail. He even drew a diagram of a 200-acre ranch, showing the
location of all the buildings, the stables and the track. Then he drew a
detailed floor plan for a 4,000-square-foot house that would sit on a
200-acre dream ranch. “He put a great deal of his heart into the project
and the next day he handed it in to his teacher. Two days later he
received his paper back. On the front page was a large red F, with a
note that read, “see me after class.” “The boy with the dream went to
see the teacher after class and asked, “why did I receive an F?” The
teacher said, “This is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you.
You have no money. You come from an itinerant family. You have no
resources. Owning a horse ranch requires a lot of money. You have to buy
the land. You have to pay for the original breeding stock and later
you’ll have to pay large stud fees.
There’s no way you could ever do
it.” Then the teacher added, “If you will rewrite this paper with a more
realistic goal, I will reconsider your grade.” The boy went home and
thought about it long and hard. He asked his father what he should do.
His father said, “Look, son, you have to make up your own mind on this.
However, I think it is a very important decision for you.” Finally,
after sitting with it for a week, the boy turned in the same paper,
making no changes at all. He stated, “You can keep the F and I’ll keep
my dream.” Monty then turned to the assembled group and says, this is my
story, “I tell you this story because you are sitting in my
4,000-square-foot house in the middle of my 200-acre horse ranch. I
still have that school paper framed over the fireplace.” He added, “The
best part of the story is that two summers ago that same schoolteacher
brought 30 kids to camp out on my ranch for a week.” When the teacher
was leaving, he said, “Look, Monty, I can tell you this now. When I was
your teacher, I was something of a dream stealer. During those years I
stole a lot of kids’ dreams. Fortunately you had enough gumption not to
give up on yours.”How many of you reading this this morning have buried your dreams, aspirations and desires simply because you encountered an obstacle or an unbelieving teacher, who told you you are too poor to be able to achieve that dream. You must realize that you cannot change your background, but you can change and re-write you future. This is another TODAY, presenting you the opportunity to keep your dream and allow the teacher take her F. Your background shouldn't keep your back on the ground.
You don't want to look back years from today and regret not making the decisions that you could have made. Karen Lamb said, "A year from now you will wish you had started TODAY". That shouldn't be you. Pick that dream up, dust it off, work it now and play later. Have a fruitful Thursday ahead
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