Most people dream big when they’re young.
They dream of becoming movie stars, sports heroes or astronauts. They dream of being cowboys or pirates, and they grow into dreams of being doctors or lawyers or fabulously wealthy businessmen.
Most of us never get a chance to pursue the biggest dreams. You can be a very talented actor in your school or your community and never come close to getting a role on a television show or in a movie.
That said, I actually have a friend from high school who while he wouldn’t qualify as a big star, he has had a long and distinguished career in theatre, television and film. My fellow ’67 graduate Michael Willis — no relation to Bruce — has made a good living both acting and teaching acting.
Maybe the closest any of my friends have come to having their wildest dreams come true. He may not have been the star, but he has had roles in some huge movies like “Men in Black,” “Tin Men,” “Major League II” and others and he appeared in 15 different episodes of “The Wire,” one of the most highly regarded TV shows ever.
Dreams do come true.
I have another friend whose dream didn’t come true, so I’ll let him escape with a pseudonym. My friend Rick would have given his left testicle to play center field for the New York Yankees. He wasn’t good enough in his teens, but if he had gone after improvement single-mindedly, who knows what might have happened.
As the saying goes, he was good enough to dream.
He told me that the summer after he graduated from high school, the Baltimore Orioles offered him the chance to play for their Rookie League team in southwest Virginia. Sadly, he was naive enough not to understand the chance he had been offered. He told them he would sign with them if he would start at Class AA, three levels higher than they were offering him.
They didn’t laugh in his face.
They just said no, so he started college and never had the opportunity again.
He didn’t realize that he could have played that summer and still started college on time. Then he could have seen if he had the potential to move up through the Orioles’ farm system and maybe play in the majors some day.
What’s good about the way it worked out?
Well, he did get to keep both his testicles.