A Deaf Girl, A Cool Guy, and A Reignited Dream

When a friend invited me to hear Marlee Matlin and Henry Winkler speak, I didn’t know that their words would reignite a dream that had been smoldering for a while. Their message wasn’t new. I’ve heard it before, spoken by lots of people, but never in this way, by these two people. It was something about the right message, spoken by the right people, at the right time, that sparked a new vision and determination in my soul, a dream that began with an 8-year-old girl and a pen.

Marlee and Henry met when she was 12 years old. Henry, the most famous actor in the world, played the Fonz on the hit TV sitcom “Happy Days.” She was performing at the Center on Deafness Community Theatre, dancing to a song she couldn’t hear because she’d been deaf since 18 months old. Her passion, talent, and energy moved Henry to want to meet this girl. Little did he know that she was a huge fan and had dreamed of meeting him as well.

With her determined personality that had this deaf girl excelling in a hearing school and world, she told Henry she wanted to be an actor like him. As fate usually works, they bonded instantly and have been friends ever since. Since the day they met, he’s encouraged her to be whoever she wanted to be, even when her friends, family, and critics told her she couldn’t. Even when she was told after winning an Academy Award for Children of a Lesser God at 21 years old, it was just a pity win. Henry has always been her rock, mentor, and champion, and that made all the difference in her life.

Henry had his own difficult road to stardom. Struggling with dyslexia and the stigma of being “dumb,” he never lost sight of his dream to make it to Hollywood since he was seven. Ignoring all the negative voices, he held on to that one voice of encouragement from a teacher that told him if he ever made it out of high school, he would do great! Through sheer determination and holding tight to those words, he never lost sight of the dream to be an actor in Hollywood. Decades later, being one of the most recognizable actors in the world is not his only accomplishment. That dyslexic boy went on the write 35 novels and counting.

It was entertaining and sweet to see the friendship these two had on stage, and as you can guess, their message was about never giving up and following your dreams. Nothing we all haven’t heard before. But the difference for me were the stories of the challenges and the reality that not everyone has a mentor like Henry Winkler, but that still doesn’t mean you can’t reach your dreams.

Henry’s shared with a conviction to a room full of students and adults that “you have greatness inside of you. Your job is to find that greatness whatever it is.” They talked about taking “who you are to where you’re going,” and that “your determination determines where you end up on this earth.” What I heard was each person had a gift and purpose in life, and it was their job to find out what it was and share it with the world.

But the biggest take away I got was we have to take control of our lives and not just let life happen to us. We have to be in the game of life. We can’t just sit on the sidelines boohooing about not playing or whine about why others are on the court and not us. We need to be proactive with our lives – meet the people, write the book, do the thing to get us to the next level, take risks and chances – because no one is going to hand us anything. No one. Ultimately, we have to put in the work to get the results. We earn our place in life good or bad, success or failure.

Now as a faith-filled believer in Christ, I’ve learned that no matter how hard I work, things don’t go as planned, and that’s when I have to give up control and trust the creator has a divine plan and purpose for my life. In that, I find peace through the challenges and the power to keep moving forward past the obstacles.

As we keep pushing forward with our dreams which in my opinion are most powerful when they align with your purpose, there will be blessings, chance meetings, and sheer luck along the way; there will be encouragers and breaks, and if you’re really, really lucky, maybe even a mentor like Henry Winkler to show you through the dragons and darkness. Will all this pushing forward and determination guaranteed success? No, doing nothing and giving up will guarantee failure.

If you want to give new life to your old dreams, if you’re tired of the smoke, if you’re cold and ready for warmth, then you have to stoke the fire. That’s what I’m doing, and I invite you to join me. Whether your dream is smoldering or if it’s gone out altogether, it only takes one spark to ignite that fire again. It only takes a renewed passion and vision to awaken that dream. For me, my spark was ignited by a deaf girl and a cool guy.

“You have more chapters in your life than you realize,” Marlee said. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. And so do you. But they aren’t going to write themselves.