As the new year passes and my next birthday approaches, it is a perfect time to reflect on both last year as well as the past years of my own life. I have watched the years turn over 60 times, have witnessed moon landings, the birth of the internet, the death of rotary phones and the passing of many good friends, relatives and too many fine mentors who have helped shape me into what I am today. It is also a perfect time to look to the future, which, in just a few short years, if I can actually choose it myself, a retirement where time is truly my own.
Looking back on what I have accomplished over these six decades, I cannot help but be struck by the lives that have influenced my own. My parents, of course, launched me on the path that I selected and always exhorted me to be certain I got a “good education.” I accomplished that charge and their wish for me to receive those diplomas drove me to complete all of my schooling. My high school teachers motivated me to find work in the field of education by their tremendous drive and dedication. Today marks my 33rd year as an educator of adults, and before tha,t I taught high school and saw the dreams of my youth come a reality. I truly lived the life of my heroes, including the wonderful television icon, named Mr. Kotter and his band of merry students.
I have been blessed with a terrific wife and very special and wonderful children. My book is dedicated to them and this website and many of the words contained on it are the direct result of the hard work of my remarkable children and their skills and talents. My sister and her husband have been role models for me throughout my life and the book I am currently working on will be dedicated to them and all they have meant to me. I have been abundantly blessed.
I owe much of what I have become to my family, my faith in God, my friends, relatives and the sacrifices of a loving and caring pair of parents who labored hard and long to provide for me and my future. “Paying it forward” was their mission and I hope to continue that tradition with my own children and their children, as well. However, another factor has also been constantly with me and it was first planted as a seed in the early 1960’s when a President and a civil rights leader challenged all of us to follow our dreams.
Our President, John F. Kennedy, challenged an entire nation to “land a man on the moon by the end of the decade and return him safely to the earth.” And sure enough, we labored hard and long and inspired by a “space race,” we achieved what was once thought of as impossible and as Neil Armstrong uttered those famous words,”One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” I sat in front of my tiny black and white television and began to dream myself.
Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered the “I have a dream.” speech and today, our first African-American President prepares for his second inaugural address, within sight of that impressive monument. Who could have imagined that on that special day in Washington over 40 years ago? Dreams are being accomplished once again.
It has often been said that if you remember the 1960’s, then you were really not there. I do remember those special days and I vividly recall my own dreams being born in a small classroom in Kenmore, New York. I dared to dream that one fine day I, too, would become a teacher, an educator and then an author. I achieved my first two dreams before the dawn of the 1980’s and last year, on a hot August day, I became a published author. All three dreams officially accomplished!
My thoughts now turn to you and the pursuit of your own dreams. I challenge you to always pursue your dreams, no matter what others may try to tell you. There will be many naysayers out there who will tell you that your dream is too large, too expensive, too impossible to ever come true. I implore you, ignore them all and constantly follow your dreams. In fact, you must follow that dream wherever it will lead you, because that dream is your unique gift and it will be forever lost if you choose to stop chasing it. All of us will be poorer because you did not contribute your unique gift to mankind.
God does not make mistakes and each of us has some unique gift or talent that we must contribute to society. No one before us and no one who follows after us, will ever possess exactly the same skills, talents, knowledge and abilities that only you have in your heart, mind and spirit. You are indeed a very special creation.
Take those talents and use them, as only you can. You will know you are on the proper path when events, people, circumstances and just simply good fortune seem to always happen to you. Just the right people will appear to help you, at just the right time, in just the right place and give you just what you need, to make your dreams a reality.
Unseen forces will come to your aid, a force I attribute to God’s hand, directing you down the path that is meant only for you. Good fortune will be on your shoulder, guardian angels will rescue you when needed, and a path will be worn by you in the sure and certain accomplishment of your dreams. However, and this is really important, you must never give up walking upon that path. Obstacles will be many, defeats and loss will certainly arrive at your door. You will be discouraged, defeated and deflated along the way. But, you must pick yourself up every time and continue upon your journey; because you know that path is true and your compass tells you it is what you must do. That is when you know you have chosen your dreams correctly and that the path you are on is the right one, the path that only you can take. Those little signposts along the way are there to give you guidance and assurances that your dreams are just around the next bend in the road. I know, I have been on that path and it really does lead to the accomplishment of all you can possibly imagine.
Returning again to the 1960’s, I can recall exactly when I started down the path that has led me to where I am today. In our 10th grade English class, we were required to read a poem by Robert Frost, entitled, “The Road not taken.” The poem concludes with the lines, “I took the one (the road) less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” For me, I did, in fact, select the path that was far less worn, but it was my own, my unique path and that, indeed, has made all the difference. Follow your own path, follow your own dreams. Dreams do come true and they can, as the song says, happen to you. Make your dreams come true!