A Difference

As many of you know I graduated this May and have begun to think more about what the future will bring. I have realized that while I have been in school I have not had the time to do some things that I used to enjoy. One of those things is reading. Why yes while I have been in school I have been reading a lot, just not books of my choice, or subjects that I would just pick up to flip through. So after four years of school I decided to sit down and read a book just because I wanted too, and out of some coincidence God provided one that I never even knew about. It was called The Last Lecture. It was written by a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. The school has a series called The Last Lectures and they would ask teachers to give a lecture as if it is their last chance to pass on information to the world. Well it happens that this professor was going to be doing exactly that. He had been diagnosed with cancer and would not live very much longer. But instead of talking about all these profound thoughts and ideas he wanted to share his message was much simpler and that was how to live and achieve your dreams. Ok maybe that doesn't sound much simpler, but upon reading the book (only 200+ pages) at one sitting (11pm-1:30 am) it seemed like a much simpler way to go to me. I found myself eager to turn the page time and again as the last word came at the bottom of each page even with the morning beginning to wear on a tired mind. It was an amazingly clear and distinct message that he had about going after and living our dreams that we had as children and it really woke me up to the fact that I had so many dreams as a child and have not really fulfilled many of them. I can say that I have fulfilled a few of them, but they really weren't all that life altering kind of dreams. I have flown in a plane and flown a plane. I have jumped out of more than a few of them. I was a soldier (and that was a life changing event), I wonder if I will ever get around to fulfilling the dreams I had of really doing something to change the world or really impact other peoples lives. Now I can't say that I have not had the opportunity to impact peoples lives, because I have, but I am sure like a lot of people how much of an impact I have made or the longevity of that impact. As a kid I often dreamed as many do I am sure of being a super hero (Batman was my favorite) and really making a difference saving the world from evil. I remember watching Saturday morning cartoon wanting to be Superman and saving the planet or one of the X-Men, or He-man. There were so many of them and I just wanted to be one of them and really do something meaningful and life changing. To be super in some form or another. I know I am not the only or first kid to have these dreams, but reading Randy Pausch's book about fulfilling his childhood dreams I had to take a hard look at my dreams and wonder if I could fulfill them. Now as I said before I have had many dreams as a child, my parents often caught me daydreaming (as well as more than a few teachers) but now most of them seem so far away and unattainable. I will never be an astronaut or a super hero, but can I still fulfill those dreams in another way. I have spent a lot of time working with kids and youth over the last couple years and I have begun to think about the dreams they have. I have often asked them what there dreams are and been surprised and dismayed often by their responses. Some have great dreams like I did of being or doing something fantastic with their lives. They have a freedom to dream and stretch their minds with all the possibilities of what could be. But there have been many that their dreams are more like nightmares. The are in situations that do not lend possibilities or hope for dreams. They live in a world free from dreams or the wonder of thought that children should have because of the lives the are forced into. Although it seems like I am a little off the original point of fulfilling my dreams talking about other peoples dreams it is this point that brings me back to the superhero dream most of us have had. When I think of what the superheros do specifically it always looks like such a huge and impossible task to any ordinary person, but because they have the abilities it is easy for them to accomplish it. Well I think I can fulfill that dream of being a superhero simply by using the abilities I have (that others don't) to accomplish what they never imagined was possible. No I won't be jumping buildings, or stopping a speeding train, but I believe that, from working with these kids, that I can bring them a sense of hope and dreams that they have never had. Help them to see possibilities in life for them that they would never have seen on their own. I think that is will enable me to meet the challenge that Pausch gave in his book of reaching our dreams, by helping others begin to have some. I hope you all get the chance to sit down and look at this book, the story contained in it, and meet the challenge left in it's pages by a man looking back over his life at the end.