This week my son, Jesse, had to write a short essay in his class that answered the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” After our Wednesday night service, his teacher caught me out in the hallway to show me his paper because she was so amused by his answers. I asked her if I could borrow it for the night since it would still need to be graded the next day. She said “yes” and when I got home, I called various family members to read them his thoughts. We all laughed at Jesse’s ability to describe, in such detail, his plans for the future. Here is what he wrote -
I want to be a football player. I want to be a wide receiver and make 15 touchdowns in one whole season. I want [our] team to be ranked #1 in the nation. Guess what team I want, Nebraska! Ya baby. There’s one thing I want to tell you I’m gonna be number 8 on my shirt. I’ll rock every city we play. They’ll get their buns beat off. When they run after me it’s hello then bye-bye. But I’ll have a move and call it the Big J. I’ll also have a celebration but I don’t know what I should [call it]. I think it should [be] J.D.W (his initials).
I love this about Jesse – his confidence that he will succeed (even though he has never actually played organized football – yet) and his ability to dream big. After I finished laughing over this little boy’s smack talking essay, I realized something important. There are a lot of us out there who keep our dreams to ourselves, and not just that, but we never stop to write them down, talk about them, or hand them in for a teacher to see. This is my little challenge for all of us – share your dreams with someone you trust, write them down, or maybe just dream for a while about your answer to what do YOU want to be when you grow up? Who knows, maybe the answer to that will “rock every city” that you play!
Daniel John, this blog post rocks my whole DAY. I love that Jesse! I’m going to read this to John – his dreams are so very similar to this. And he’s never played organized football either. And I write my dreams down for the whole world quite a bit, so you know I’m a believer. It thrills my little heart to see our kids dreaming big, and I hope our own lives always give them permission to keep doing it.
Ah, Jesse! What a great guy! And, yes, I’m challenged to have “faith like a child.”
Yeah, baby!!! There is precedence for this in scripture, Habakkuk 2:2-3. Rock the world for Jesus, Jesse, just like your parents are doing in the way they are raising you!!!
Jesse inspires me! I totally love his courage and fearlessness in communicating his dreams Like the bible says — a little child shall lead them! He’s certainly doing a good job leading us all to dream — and I, for one, am following his lead! Way to go Jesse!
Thank you so much for sharing your life online – it is so encouraging and uplifting to be a part of, even if in a small partaking.
And you did such a great job of putting Jesse’s essay in the perfect frame with your words, Dan. Rock on.