I was watching the US open with my husband recently, which was pretty intense. I can’t image playing a 4 hour tennis match without keeling over a couple of times. It’s incredible. Anyways, I wasn’t really cheering for anyone in particular, I’ve never been one to latch on to a team or player. (My husband, completely different story, he’s a die hard). I’ll root for a team here and there, but at the end of it, I don’t care who wins. I’m not heart broken that “my” team loses, because these people on tv are still among the most fit, talented, skilled athletes in the world. They’re great even when they lose, they’re doing what they love, and they’re still getting a fat paycheck.
I bring this up for a couple of reasons. First because I think it’s interesting how as humans we work all our lives to find meaning and value in what we do. Yet, there are people who play sports for a living, and they are some of the most praised, valued people (at least monetarily) in our entire society. I’m not undermining the amount of time and work it takes to become a professional athlete, because that is no joke (like I said, I wouldn’t have made it through a single one of those matches). But people have non-conventional jobs all the time and are judged for it.
So one of the beautiful opportunities these people have is their audience. They have a mass amount of people following them, idolizing them, and trying to be them in any way they can. They act as an inspiration to the masses, and can utilize this platform to evoke change. We give them their wealth, and in turn, some share the wealth of knowledge and wisdom from their personal journeys. A lot of these athletes have non-profit organizations, give back to the community, and share the message that anything is possible with the right mindset. (Again, not all of them are preaching to the choir, but some are, and it’s beautiful). To me, this was a reminder that we all have a platform, and a voice, it’s just a matter of having the confidence to speak freely with it.
Anyways, back to the US open… so Novak Djokovic wins the finals, to nobody’s surprise. And with this win he’s broken several records, with the big one being that he’s won 24 grand slams. My husband and I are watching as he goes to his kids first, his family, and celebrates with his team. We are bursting with sympathetic joy, you can feel the happiness through the screen. I feel like I just won. But then he gives a speech about getting to where he is. About how he stuck with his 7 year old dream, much with the support of his family. He didn’t have anyone in his family who played tennis, but he loved it, he knew it was for him, and he stuck with it.
At this point I’m crying. Imagine being 7 years old with the confidence that one day all your dreams would come true. And then imagine being surrounded with people who were like, “ya, duh, of course they will.” How fricken beautiful. It also made me wonder what we all would be doing if we followed our childhood dreams. If we were all out here playing out a life we dreamt of in our innocence, and a life fueled by what we loved. I for one, would be the first female in the MLB (Chicago Cubs, or maybe the Yankees). I’d be on my second novel at leasttttt. I did actually choose dentistry when I was this age, but that’s because I didn’t think I’d make it as a writer, and I was told I couldn’t play baseball with the boys. Granted, no one told me these things were impossible either, I labeled them myself as pipe dreams.
So i’ll wrap this up with another lesson I learned from tennis: “don’t let dreams be dreams.” (whatever that might mean to you)
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