Everything has a beginning.
Football games have a kickoff. Movies have a premiere night. New buildings have a grand opening.
But there's a long process before something "starts" as we all know it. Football teams have two practices a day in the hot summer heat way before the games even start. Movies takes years developing the script, and that's before the filming takes place. And for new buildings, it takes years of designing the blueprints and construction before the building is ready for what it is designed for.
Dreams have always been a big part of my life, and it's hard to define when the starting point actually was. Was it when I was playing with LEGOs and imagining I was building a theme park? Or was it when I was swinging on a backyard swing-set with a portable CD player listening to Elton John's Greatest Hits or any other CD my parents had in their car? (As long as the CD wasn't too scratched!)
It's really hard for me to pinpoint when it all began. I have a much easier time realizing where the tipping points were.
Tipping points (which is the title of an excellent book by Malcolm Gladwell by the way), are the little things or occurrences in life that lead to major changes or moments.
I remember vividly when the tipping point for "A Million Dreams" began. A couple years ago, several of my friends and I had MoviePass which allowed people to go to a free movie every single day. (Needless to say, the company ended up going bankrupt, but we had a great time while that business survived!)
So on a frigid January evening, some friends invited me to see The Greatest Showman movie. You may have heard of it. It was one of those movies where people either really liked it or hated it. Movie critics gave it a pretty scathing review. But despite the poor reviews, it developed a large following through word-of-mouth, and it ended up being one of the most successful musicals in Hollywood's history.
As for me, I loved it. I loved the story, but most importantly, I loved the soundtrack. And no other song stood out more for me than "A Million Dreams." That was the song that I could resonate with to help describe how I felt not just about the past, but how I wanted the future to be like for me. That was one of the tipping points in pushing me on the journey and finding myself where things are at right now.
So where are things right now? What is this website anyways?
As I've stated before, dreams have always been a huge part of my life and still are. In fact, I have a string in my apartment that has notecards of dreams that I have for life. Some dreams are small-scale, and it's a joy when I get to take one of those notecards down after it's happened. Some are very large-scale and might take a lifetime to do.
I've been fortunate to do workshops & public speaking at colleges, high schools, businesses, and other events over the years, I've seen that there can be power in sharing stories from our lives and what we're all learning daily.
Through this website, blog, online content, and public speaking events, I'm going to share more of my personal stories & thoughts in hope that it will encourage others. And it's not because I'm someone special. I just hope that by sharing my story & the many lessons I'm continuing to learn along the way, God will use it to encourage & challenge people in this journey we call life. And I hope this can turn into a movement that everyone can get behind and impact their local communities.
If everyone allowed themself to explore their imaginations and have a dream, it would change the world. And one thing I've learned is that it's not about achieving the dream- it's about WHO you become in the process.
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I'm so looking forward to going on this journey with you all. We have big dreams to go after together. As the song from the movie goes, "A million dreams for the world we're gonna make."
