Don’t let your parents derail your dream – it is your dream. Here is a true story.

My wife watched the 1984 Olympics with her father and decided that she wanted to go to the Olympics when she was older; she was 14 at the time. They looked at all the sports that were in the Olympics and decided on flatwater kayaking because it was not that well known in the US and she could train on her own, without a team. She ultimately won multiple national championships, represented the US at the 1987 Jr. World Championships in Yugoslavia, and was invited to train at the Olympic training center in Chula Vista, CA with the intent of training and qualifying for the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992. However, this all occurred at the time she was graduating HS and supposed to be going to college. While her father helped set her on her path, her parents ultimately “dropped the hammer” and said she had to go to college and not go west to the Olympic training center and they would not assist in funding any of her training at the Olympic center. She listened to them….to this day it is, by far, her biggest regret in life, she can’t even tell the story without crying because she knows deep down she could have marched in the opening ceremonies representing the US, but gave up on HER dream. She could have still gone to college after the games and everyone would have been happy.

Pursue your dream, it is YOUR dream – but have a fall back plan – there are plenty of folks who realize there athletic dreams and then do big things afterwards – for example, Eric Heiden won 5 gold medals, rode in the Tour de France and then became an orthopedic surgeon and if you fall short in your dream you can still do big things in other arenas.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 8 months ago by James.