“You had a dream. When you were 8, it was adorable. When you were 18, it was inspiring. At 28 it’s officially embarrassing and I just want you to stop before we get to heartbreaking.” – Morning Glory (Movie)
I put a quote at the end of every post to finish it off but occasionally I hear something that inspires the post such as the quote above. This particular quote is from the movie Morning Glory with Rachel McAdams, who plays Becky Fuller, a struggling television producer in her late 20’s with too little experience and no one willing to give her the chance to gain some. The saying above is from the beginning of the movie where McAdams’ character is discussing her recent lay off with her mother who gives her some not so comforting advice.
I don’t know what it was about this particular line in the movie, but I couldn’t stop playing it over and over in my head. When did we suddenly become too old to dream? This all made me think of a guy I once knew and I have to say, when it came to him, I sounded a lot like Becky’s mom in the quote above. I met this particular person when he was in his late 20’s and got to know him briefly but I did find out that he had a very lofty dream to become a professional basketball player. I will admit that while he was a great player, he went to a small college so he didn’t get the kind of exposure he needed to make it to the NBA. A few other opportunities to play on lower levels came and went for him but he still kept working towards this goal. He played in local men’s leagues and spent his days working out at open gyms at local colleges while the rest of his peers had traded in their Nikes for business suits and spent their days in offices. Personally, I thought this guy was delusional. What was he going to be, a thirty year old rookie? With each passing day he was getting older and the game was definitely taking a toll on him physically but he still kept going in spite of his dream passing him by.
I don’t know what ever happened to this guy but I’m pretty positive he didn’t end up in the NBA, however, when a dream doesn’t work out, do we just stop dreaming? I think as we grow, we watch our talents and skills grow with us. We discover the things that we truly excel at and new dreams develop along the way. Sure maybe you realized the limitations of your athletic prowess and the days of becoming a professional athlete are long behind you but why can’t that dream evolve into something different? Why can’t it become something equally as great?
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