Everyone tells kids to follow their dreams but these people actually DO it!
Everyone tells kids to follow their dreams.
Do you wanna be an astronaut? You can do it.
Do you wanna be an actor? You can do it.
(Fun link: Top 15 Kids Dream Jobs, and very notable teacher is right up there!)
But the truth is, most kids are hearing this from people who didn’t live their childhood dream.
I think that’s why kids look up to athletes and see them as a place to be inspired and learn.
They don’t necessarily look up to football players because they want to play football when they grow up. But they know that person is doing the thing they dreamed of doing — and that’s inspiring.
I know this to be true because I was one of those kids. From the age of 11 those Olympic rings meant everything to me. Everything. I’m 43 years old and they still mean everything to me. From the beginning of my formative years through becoming an adult to learning how to navigate the world, those rings were front and center in my life.
And those rings taught me that if I wanted to do it, I could do it. I had no right going to the Olympics. I wasn’t that good of an athlete. As a track athlete, I was good. But I was not an Olympian.
I tried, I failed, I tried again, I failed, I tried again, I failed, I tried again, I failed. And every single time I failed I learned.
I had no idea how to bobsled but I figured it out because I wanted to go to the Olympics and I wanted to win. And so I learned. I never crashed in the same corner twice, and every single time I failed, I learned and applied what I learned to the next thing.
After the Olympics, I didn’t have qualifications to do what I do. I didn’t go to business school, I was the farthest thing from it. I was a PE teacher. I had no idea how to start a nonprofit, I had no idea how to raise money, I had no idea how to create national partnerships to reach 60 million kids, but I figured it out.
In today’s world we need education to succeed, but we also need an Olympic level of resilience and tenacity.
And you can tell kids about things like goal setting, hard work, commitment, and sportsmanship — but nothing beats actually watching athletes demonstrate these skills in real life and hearing directly from them how they think about accomplishing those life-long dreams.
Two incredible examples at the Olympics this year were the USA women’s monobob competitors: Kaillie Humphries (who won gold) and Elana Meyers Taylor (who took silver.)
Both these athletes are incredible people, and long-time Classroom Champions mentors (Elana) and supporters (both). You could see why they’re such great role models by watching their Olympic performance this year.
(Want a throwback? Watch this awesome 4-minute mini-documentary about Elana becoming the first woman to compete in 4-MAN bobsled in a World Cup race, produced by friend of Classroom Champions, Ewan Nicholson. Oh, and Kaillie was like two sleds behind her to be the second.)
Back to the recent Olympics.
First, Kailie came out and did what Kailie does, which is absolutely destroy everybody in the Women’s Monobob. She just stepped up and had four basically perfect runs. It was incredible to watch.
Kailie not only took gold, she won by the biggest margin than anybody’s seen in bobsled for about 50 years. She also became the first woman to win a gold medal in two different bobsled disciplines. You don’t have to know anything about the sport of bobsled to recognize what a badass she is.
Kaillie also did this after needing to change countries after abuse led her to need to leave her home country of Canada, having once-upon-a-time even been her native country’s flag bearer. Just YESTERDAY CNN ran this article about her story, and what it took for her to win gold last month.
And then there’s Elana Meyers Taylor, who really should be recognized officially as America’s superhero. Things didn’t go smoothly for her at launch of the Olympics (she got COVID, had to turn down the honor of being flag bearer at Opening Ceremonies, and had to self-isolate away from her two year old son, Nico, who she travels the world with).
When it was time to compete, she showed up. Her first three runs in Monobob were not great. But her fourth run was baller. She killed it. And she moved up into the silver medal spot by a mile.
(This article in the Washington Post articulates Elana’s story better than I could. She is the ultimate role model. And, by the way, she is the most decorated Black woman in Winter Olympics history, and she has had to battle racism the whole way. The monobob was her fourth Olympic medal; she's meddled in every Olympics she's been in—as has Kaillie Humphries. Elana went out the next week and won her fifth Olympic medal by claiming bronze in 2-woman. Kaillie had a rough race and finished out of the medals. She’ll be back though, don’t worry about her.)
So, these two women are my heroes right now. So much so that they’re emulated on my daughter’s wall in the form of animals - “Kailles the Lion” and “Elana the Kangaroo” (because she’s a mom, get it? :-).
I’m really glad they're here, along with every other person who is brave enough to fight for what they believe in, and chase what they want in life.
Because kids don’t just need to be told to live their dreams. We need to show them there are people out there actually doing it.
- Steve
