Dreams Can Come True! Go The Distance!


One of the best parts of my job is when I get a chance to visit an elementary or middle school and tell stories to the kids. It never fails that I will ask the students about their Dreams in life. 

Which brings me back to my own childhood days when I attended a Catholic Elementary School in Massachusetts. During my year of third grade studies, Sister Marie Catherine (my teacher) posed this question to her students: "What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?" She then instructed us all to write down our answer on paper and she would read them out loud. I remember that many of us stated the same things ... like Astronaut, Doctor, Fireman, Lawyer, Policeman, etc.

Then came my Dream! My teacher was so stunned by my answer. She got so quiet. Then after a minute or two of silence, she called me up to the front of the room and whispered to me... “Mr. Loria, you can’t be what you wrote on this paper. How did you come up with such an answer?”

Don't laugh. This is a true story. My Dream I had submitted to my teacher was that I wanted to be like “MR. ED" (pictured above), a talking horse from the hit TV Show back in the 60's. My teacher therefore did not read my "Dream" out loud but did actually call my Mom and I got in all kinds of trouble at home for embarrassing the family.

When I reached 8th grade -  same school but a different teacher also wanted to know what each of us desired to be as we got ready to move up to the high school ranks. Again, similar answers were stated by my classmates. However, my answer was that I wanted to be a “Dolphin Trainer” after I graduated. Yes, I was inspired by another hit TV show. This one was called "FLIPPER" and my Dream then was to one day work at the San Diego Zoo!

Four years later, my high school teacher surveyed our group of senior classmates to see what our career plans were as we were nearing adulthood. My answer was: “To work in Professional Sports!"  Hockey was my focus at that time of my life.

That path took a lot of hardships and some stress a long the way at home to make that Dream come to fruition. I had turned down a lot of local jobs offered to me from my Vocational High School trade that I had majored in for four years. Jobs like becoming a Wedding Photographer or to working in a textile mill silk screening shower curtains and at pretty good wages… all because I had this Dream of mine to work in the National Hockey League (which actually happened six years after I graduated from high school!)

Gang, don’t stop Dreaming and keep on Believing. When I wrote this original piece, I was helping clean up the kitchen for my wife (who was baking an endless supply of Christmas Cookies for our family) when my trustworthy IPOD played this one song from my playlist – Michael Bolton’s “GO THE DISTANCE” - which inspired me to write this as a bit of "Holiday Hope" for someone else seeking to follow their Dreams!

"I’ll be there someday, I can go the distance
I will find my way, if I can be strong
I know every mile, will be worth my while
When I go the distance, I’ll be right where I belong
Down an unknown road, to embrace my fate
Though that road may wander, it will lead me to you
And a thousand years, would be worth the wait
It might take a lifetime, but somehow I’ll see it through
And I won’t look back, I can go the distance
And I’ll stay on track, no, I won’t accept defeat
It’s an uphill slope, but I won’t lose hope
Till I go the distance, and my journey is complete"

To keep inspiring me everyday back then, my three daughters had set up my cell phone voice mail ringtone to the actual MR. ED television show theme song as a reminder that I did not miss my CALL IN LIFE even though that adorable horse inspired my first set of Dreams!


Jim Loria

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