From One To The Next

This month for Heart Support I’ve spent a lot of my time finding out what it means to have a dream both personally and through the experiences of other people. I’ve read stories where people are creating and envisioning dreams almost every hour of every day. I’ve experienced moments throughout this journey where people have explained that they felt as though life was meaningless and dreams meant nothing because it wasn’t possible. In that sense, the spectrum has been cleared. As a team, I think we’ve been built, broken, and rebuilt in trying to figure out the best way to go about making some changes to Heart Support- to the things that we strive for and the resources that we provide. Just this morning I posted a final thought for the month of April on one of the social media sites where I said, “Just because April’s on the outs doesn’t mean our dreams have to be walking to the wind too.” It wasn’t until later this evening that I really began to see the message behind something like that, no matter how simply it appeared.

Most of the time I work until a deadline approaches toward a particular goal. Once that deadline arrives, I the sit back and evaluate the situation. If the goal has not yet been met, I don’t turn around and make a new benchmark for the opportunity and seek to complete it again. Instead, I mark it as a failure; take that for what it is, and move forward toward the next task that needs to be completed or potential goal to be reached. It wasn’t until I talked to my supervisor this past week and told him some of the ways I function as a student, and some of what really drive me to this internship, that I actually began to see some of what I do behaviorally, and understand some of it from a different perspective. I’ve never really been one to let myself off the hook. I’ve always been the type of person that needs to achieve whatever it is that I initially set out to do and when that doesn’t happen I have a hard time learning to take it in stride.

 I explained this to Jake and we talked about it for a little while. He explained that a lot of the stories he has been receiving and at many points throughout his own, there are moments where the deadlines aren’t met and where the challenge may be overwhelming that lead a person to feel as though they’ve failed personally in their expectations. That’s been me throughout different periods of my life. Right now, at times that can be me because I want to do the best at this job as is possible- I want to reach the community that has begun forming and continue to expand the dream that Jake and his wife saw a few years ago. It was during this conversation that Jake told me, it’s not what I accomplish during those times, but that I can learn something, teach something, and continue forward until that one goal is achieved no matter the hardship or time- frame.

This next month as part of the Heart Support program we’re trying to push the idea of community and the building of discussions and networks. I think it’s really important for us to try and continue to push our message out to the people that will listen for as far as we can. Waves are sometimes wonderful and beautiful like that, you know? So, this month deals with the idea of community and having us as team members reach out to the listeners with more of our stories and vulnerabilities. Should be challenging, but it should definitely be interesting to experience as well. I’ve already written my blog on what community means and how it is that I see community from a team and individual perspective. I’m really excited for the responses this month.

I found a quote a few weeks ago when looking for dream information and articles from the famous USA hockey coach Herb Brooks that reads, “We should be dreaming. We grew up as kids having dreams, but now we're too sophisticated as adults, as a nation. We stopped dreaming. We should always have dreams.” April might be on its way out, but that doesn’t mean that these particular dreams and goals, of doing well and making an impact have to end. Neither does it mean that I have failed. Instead, it simply continues adding fuel to the fire and passion to the work I’m already doing.