MY DREAM
FUTURE: Husband, children, family,
friends, and PURPOSE!
PART 1: community and connecting
My third and most significant future
is filled with my dreams and passions.
It is a future filled with love, unity, and purpose. I would like to start a movement, first
across the U.S. then to other country’s that would bring people together, help
one another, and encourage people to “pay it forward,” which would create a
sense of belonging and peace for all.
People would seek to understand, rather than judge one another, and
rather than giving up hope, they would work together to attempt to makes this world
a better place and become connected.
This dream of the future would allow me to connect with other
enlightened and compassionate individuals, the chance to travel, collaborate to
make a real difference in this world, and a lifelong journey of learning and
exploring. My dream is to have the
opportunity to meet, collaborate, and explore new ideas with individuals who
share my passion for making this world a better place. Together, they could help me evolve my ideas,
and explore new ones. The goal would be
networking and communicating with individuals across the globe who would want
to support a movement of peace and collaboration. This can be done with mass media, networking,
good communication between individuals, and good old fashioned footwork. People’s dreams will be met, people will
become inspired, things never thought possible will become accomplished,
cultural and diverse lines will be crossed, and people will see the power of
love!
I have many ideas on how to get this movement
started. Some may be outlandish but I
truly believe that as others learn about the movement, they too will be
inspired to want to join in. My first
idea is to find funding for those entrepreneurs who have great ideas and work
ethic but no financial backing. If we can
find money to invest in their ideas, we can help their dreams become a
reality. They will make enough money to
make life worthwhile, but must also agree to donate a certain amount of their
successes back to the community and its programs that benefit humanity. My next idea is a school program that will
help with bullying and encourage positive behaviors from today’s youth as well
as pull the “outcasts” into a circle of peers who will care for and support
them. It is a program that will be
implemented in schools, where certain morally grounded seniors will become
leaders. They will reach out to other
youth in the school system whom others ignore or bully. They will take this youth into their circle,
encourage successes, give this youth opportunity to meet new people and try new
things, as well as mentor them. This
will allow these youth to know and understand other youth whom they may have
never given the opportunity to know. It
will encourage a peer to be drug free, volunteer in community organizations,
and become involved in creative and extracurricular activities. The youth leader will receive merits and a
letter of recommendation from their school to the college that they apply for
to help with scholarships and show their leadership abilities. The peer whom they mentored will then be
encouraged, themselves, to become a leader once they become seniors and follow
in their mentors footsteps. I have much
more on this idea, which I call “beneath my wings program,” but I wanted to
give you a basic overview of the goals of the program.
Another idea that I hope to evolve on is integrating all the wonderful
nonprofits to help benefit one another.
For instance, convicts and community members can donate time to build
homeless shelters. In turn, these people
whom live in these shelters will donate time into another nonprofit org.. For example, the youth I work with at
Pressley Ridge could donate time to help build additions onto domestic violence
shelters or to the humane society. The
homeless people could donate time to visit a nursing home to play a game of
cards and converse with the elderly. In
turn, the elderly could knit blankets for the homeless shelter or help them
learn to read. A police officer could
visit a juvenile placement and talk to at risk youth, on their level, without
them being in trouble or having to feel intimidated. A person who is given a place to stay at a
homeless shelter could agree to donate a few hours a month to the local ymca or
boys/girls club to teach a youth how to swim, paint, play a sport, coach a
little league team, or any other artistic venture. All of this would help give each of these
individuals a sense of purpose and belonging.
We could take youth who are in placement, people from homeless shelters
or other organizations and have them donate time at the local library to help
people learn to read. These are just a
few of my ideas on this issue, but I truly believe that people whom receive
help will also want to reach out and help others. Whether it is building something,
sharing/teaching certain skills, or donating time to offer love and support to
another, the theme would be helping one another. The CEO’s or representatives from community
programs and non-profit organizations will have monthly meetings, in each
community across the U.S., to see how they can integrate, support, and help one
another. Through collaboration and joint
efforts, far more people will be served and challenges will be overcome as well
as less tax money will be used for these specific programs which means there
will be more money to build/create more humanitarian programs.
Another program that I would like to see
implemented in each town is the sober carpool/ride programs. The cars can be provided by donations within
the community, or using automobiles that are built in learning programs such as
trade schools, colleges, and prisons.
Old junk cars can be taken into jails, or youth programs where the
inmates or youth receive training on mechanics so that they acquire the skills
needed to become successful once released from imprisonment. As each person is taught this valuable skill,
and each car is completed, the car can then be donated to a person (preferably
to a hardworking family with children who are in need, or a college campus). If donated to a family, they will then have
to agree to donate one 4 hour shift a month, for an agreed time period
(preferrabally a year) to drive home college kids or intoxicated individuals on
the weekends. This will help to reduce
the amount of drunk driving accidents and deaths resulting from it. If the cars were donated to college campuses,
individuals who receive tickets or citations would have to agree to be a sober
driver for a night rather than pay a fine or as a consequence for certain actions. Automobiles that are seized by the police,
for drugs or other circumstances, should also be donated to programs that
assist the public such as the sober driving program or a program that assists
the elderly or disabled to do things like be able to go to doctor appointments
or grocery shopping. Citizens who
receive moving violations, have suspended licenses due to accumulation of
points, or individuals who have community service hours could donate time to
drive these cars in order to receive a deduction in fines or lengths of their
sentence. People with outstanding and
outrageous ammounts of fines to pay in order to get their licenses reinstated
would have an opportunity to clean the slate and start over. I have known many individuals who were involved
in situations which resulted in them owing the state thousands of dollars in
order to have their driving priveliges reinstated. Most persons with a family do not have this
kind of money, so they either drive illegally, or choose to live on welfare. Either way, the state does not receive the
money most of the time, and the individuals children and family are hurt in the
process as well as our tax money is used to pay them for being unemployed or
for food stamps, etc. At least the state
would be benefitting somewhat and people can choose to take the right path and
have their license cleared through these community service hours, either way,
the person will not have an excuse.
PART 2: PAY IT FORWARD
My second to largest idea is what
I’d like to call, “the kick off.” This
would be a specific date and time to start the events of “pay it forward.” Pay it forward would consist of three
specific aspects and actions and would need the assistance of mass media and
supporters to have the greatest impact.
The first aspect would be what I call “tag” and would spread kindness
all over the country. “Tag” would be a
specific date and time (“kick off”) and we would encourage as many individuals
as we can to take what they can afford and go into the community in search of a
person/family who looks like they could use the money, and hand them the
money. The giver would simply ask that
the person who is on the receiving end to “pay it forward” with two acts of
kindness. Whether it be to babysit for a
couple who needs to rekindle the spark in their marriage, mow a neighbor’s
lawn, clean an elderly person’s house, or help a person put the groceries in
their car. It could be anything really,
but this person would then ask the next person to do the same. For those individuals who have more to offer,
financially, the greater they would ask the person to pay it forward. I know that I live paycheck to paycheck, but
if an event like this were to occur, I could definitely come up with at least
fifty dollars or so, and feel great about doing this deed. My faith in mankind tells me that there are
many other caring individuals who would do and feel the same way.
The second aspect to “pay it forward,” would
be a special newspaper section devoted to “pay it forward.” Here readers could post skills or actions
that they can offer others, as well as things or deeds people may need or to be
done. Only one requirement, if you
receive help or a response to the message, then you offer your skills to
someone else. This could be as simple as
cooking someone a meal, helping out with chores, helping someone to learn a new
skill, or tutoring a youth. It could be
a roofer putting a roof on a persons home in exchange for the person remodeling
their bathroom or equivalent to the roofing job. It could be anything really as each person’s
needs are different. Since each person
is specialized in certain skills, and lack in others, this concept would allow people
to obtain/accomplish things that they may not have been otherwise financially
able to. This concept is based on a
bartering theory. This would help people
to thrive based on Maslow’s theory because it would help people’s basic needs
to be met, as well as others to thrive or get ahead.
The third aspect to “pay it forward” would be
what I call “day of dreams calendar.” I
would like to collaborate with individuals and create a calendar that is
dedicated to giving. There are 365 days
in a year and I would like to make each day a special aspect to giving. One day could be a free oil change, another
could be a free haircut to a child who needs a confidence boost, another for
winter coat giving, another for feed the hungry/grocery giving, another for
dreams to ill children, another to a free scholarship to a college or university,
etc. etc. For this, I will need the help
of many to communicate and canvas. We
would have to contact businesses and individuals and ask them for their
participation. For example, if it was a
free oil change day (once a year), we would approach a business and tell them
what we are trying to do and ask them for their participation. Surely they would oblige when a thirty dollar
oil change is a drop in a bucket to what the company earns. As we get one oil change place to support our
cause, I predict that many other automobile places will also want to
contribute, to stay in competition if for no other reason. This example would be the same no matter what
service we were applying it to. It would
be one day a year and one service from each company. I would like to think that successful
business owners would like to give back, if not truly from the heart and good
intensions, then from wanting to be perceived by the community in good
ways. This calendar will be distributed
to all individuals across the globe, and they could assist us in encouraging
supporters by word of mouth, and also receive advertisements for their good
deeds. What’s better than good PR,
right?
PART 3: MUSIC CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE!
ITS ALL
ABOUT DREAMS….IF WERE GONNA THINK, LET’S THINK BIG!
My third and largest dream to conquer would be
to see WV have a national football team.
People think I am crazy, and tell me that it will never happen. My response to them is, “well if Baltimore
can build a stadium in the middle of a congested city, why can’t we do it
here. We have all this land!” I think this is a great idea because WV is
big on sports, and would love to have a football team. It would bring in a ton of revenue once
completed, create tons of job opportunities, and help tremendously with the
economic success of West Virginia. What
would be better than a football stadium in the middle of all these beautiful
mountains? We could have places for
camping, music, and activities surrounding it so that people who love the nature
aspect and spending times with friends and family could make a week or weekend
trip out of it. Family, fun, campfires,
and football. What could be better than
that?
Not only to I wish to see a stadium built, but
I also want it to contribute to humanity by allowing it to double as a concert
stadium when it is not being used for football.
I live for music and living in West Virginia, I have come to realize
that there are very few concerts in the area. My friends are always traveling
to nearby states when they want to attend a concert. If the stadium was built, one night a week, a
musician will come and spend four hours doing a concert that will benefit a
charity or cause of their choice. If you
think about it, there are 52 weeks in a year.
That means yearly we would need 52 artists to give away four hours of
their time for a great cause. With all
the musicians who are giving, who have went through difficult times, or even
had drug abuse problems, there are sure to be, at the least, 52 artists a year
who would be willing to contribute. I
would call this stadium “Music Makes the Difference.” It would be known as a place where people of
love, faith, peace, and hope would gather to spread the message of love and
hope.
I know that this is an extremely expensive
dream; however, I have ideas that could help make it cheaper and also
contribute to the problem of prisoner recidivism. There are so many people who
are incarcerated, who reoffend once they are released. With the lack of transitioning programs
available, once released, prisoners either end up back in the same environment
or have nowhere to go, and no money or means to make it. This is a major cause of them reentering
prison. It costs U.S. citizens tons of
tax dollars to house and feed them, and the prisons are overcrowded. If we decided to build a stadium, I’d like to
see non violent prisoners working on the construction of it. They would have the opportunity to integrate
some back into the community, learn a sense of responsibility and work ethic as
well as earn money so they have a starting point once they are released from
jail. We wouldn’t have to pay them as
much as we would a free citizen, but rather something fair, like a half or a
third of what a normal individual would make.
While they are building the stadium, and earning money, they would also
be able to support their families or pay their past due child support as well
as any fines. This will help to give
them hope and encourage them to keep on the right path. Think about it, if you were released from
prison, couldn’t get a job, no home, no way to feed yourself or money to start
a life with while also owing the court money and past due child support,
wouldn’t any individual feel that they were buried too deep in a hole to dig
themselves out of? I know I would! This is why so many prisoners reoffend. They either do not see any hope or any light
at the end of the tunnel, or they go from being locked in a cell, to complete
freedom, with no transitioning period. I
do see this dream as being possible, and if it had the right financial backers
to see it through, it could do a lot of good with recidivism, save on tax
dollars, help out financially with tons of good to charities, as well as make
the investors tons of money once it was completed and obtained an NFL team
while also contributing greatly to the economic success of our beautiful state.
My ideal future is probably somewhat
of a mixture of all three scenarios, and I also realize that I may not achieve
many of my dreams but that is what I am, an idealist and a dreamer. This is what keeps me having faith in all of
mankind and know that every little effort from an individual can make a big
difference in someone else’s life.
Either way, I know I will be happy because in the end all I could ask
for is to be surrounded by loving and caring individuals which I already
am. I keep my mind optimistic, share my
love, help to teach others, and truly love and care for every person on this
planet so even if I died at this very moment, that would be okay. It would be God’s fate and I would die loved
and happy with my dreams written down on this paper with hopes that others will
find it, and encourage one another to work together rather than against one
another and create a nation of peace, compassion, and LOVE!
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