Have you ever had a dream, or a goal? An ambition? A desire for change that you want to make happen in your life? These dreams and goals are great things because they can make our lives better. They can give us hope, show us the way forward, and create an upward path of success. But it's important to be careful with these things too-- because ambitions and hopes have been known to divide people into two camps: the ones who succeed, and the ones who don't.
The truth is that having a serious goal or dream is not easy-- but it doesn't have to be impossible either! If you work hard enough at achieving these goals, hopefully one day soon then your dreams will come true.
That's why I've written this letter, in an effort to share my memories with you. And hope to inspire and motivate you to:
Throw out your dreams, and start reaching for goals Fulfill your dreams, and unlock the door of opportunity Make a difference in the world around you!
I want to give credit where credit is due— because I've learned through experience that my life wasn't always that great. My parents never had much money when I was younger. When they were on the scene, they were struggling just to make a living-- until one day they decided it was time for me to help take care of myself. So they said goodbye to their jobs, and I was sent away.
I ended up moving to a big city-- where the high school was only 3 years old. And the gym teacher, Miss White, gave us boxing lessons every week.
I wasn't very good at boxing at first-- but before long, I started to take it more seriously-- and that's because I had something no one else in the school had: a dream and a goal.
My dream was to become a professional boxer, and my goal was to win the Golden Gloves Junior Olympics in my home state of Idaho. I worked hard every day to reach that goal— and before long, my dream became a reality. I won the Junior Olympics for my weight class and I was awarded a spot in the international competition!
I was only 14 at the time. But I had achieved my dream. And that's when I started thinking really hard about how to turn my great boxing skills into something more.
And what did I decide? That I would study hard and become an Olympic Gold Medalist in boxing! So why didn't it happen? Because the world around me had other plans for me—and it turned out that those plans weren't good enough for me...
Since then, I've thought about what happened a lot of times. And I've come to realize that while the goals I'd set were lofty, they were also worthwhile. And it wasn't because of me, but because of all the people who helped me along the way...
That's why I've decided to devote my life and my skills as a boxer to helping kids like you! Like you said, we're all in this together-- so if you have your own dreams, big or small, then let's work together to help each other succeed in our lives too! Let's reach for our goals, and make sure there are no limits on what we can achieve. We'll look for teachable moments in the ring, especially when we make mistakes. And let's look at the world around us and see what we can do to make it a better place. In short, "dreams and goals" is our motto for this school year.
With that in mind, I want to introduce you to your classmates-- Mr. Peter, Miss Helen, Mr. Bernie, Miss Anne Marie (the gym teacher), Mr. Gene (my coach), and also you, Mr.