Olympic Sized Dreams

Watching the Olympics these past two weeks has been an incredibly inspiring and welcome distraction. As I watched Olympians—young and even some not-so-young—compete and, for some, win medals, I thought about how each of these world-class athletes, at one point, was a little kid dreaming of this moment at the Olympics. 

As I sit crying at their accomplishments, I can’t help but think about what it took to transform their dreams into reality. I always say a dream is a story that hasn’t been written yet, so you get to write it. Many of the athletes we are cheering for today wrote about their dreams from the time they were little children.NBC Sports recently shared the note written by swimmer and Olympic Gold medalist Ryan Murphy to his parents when he was 8 years old, telling them he hoped to be an Olympian. As reported by her fellow camper and now managing editor of Tech Insider, Emily Cohn, 9-year-old Aly Raisman wrote in her camp yearbook that in 20 years she would be an Olympic gymnast. But what’s the magical intonation that makes one dream come true and others merely a pipe? 

I have to believe it has to start with talent, and in the case of the Olympics, a certain amount of athletic prowess. But I also believe that, at some point, a dream can only become a reality when it turns into a goal. And when it turns into a goal, to achieve it, well, that requires action and persistence. Harrison Thomas Smith, 18, son of Isabel Beckett-Smith and Guy Smith of Pittsford (and now Park City, Utah), has dreamed of being an Olympic aerial skier since he was 8 years old. His dad says, “Harrison would constantly write about going to the Olympics in his journal, drawing the Olympic rings and the United States Ski Team logo." Guy Smith remembers the exact moment when he realized Harrison was going to fulfill his dream. When Harrison was 12 years old, the family was in Lake Placid, New York, celebrating the 4th of July. While everyone else was hanging around enjoying the beautiful night, Harrison said he had to go to bed early so he could get ready for his training the next day. 

Harrison is the reigning United States Freestyle Champion and well on his way to the 2018 Winter Olympics. Turning 8-year-old doodles and dreams into reality took discipline and sacrifice, not just for Harrison but for his entire family.

For the rest of us,we may have big dreams, but we might have to retool our dreams for the reality of our talents and our lives, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn't pursue them in some way, and it doesn’t mean they lose their "dreaminess." When I was a little girl, I would play piano with the door wide open, hoping that a willing talent agent would hear me and put me on Broadway. Never mind that I was 8 years old. Never mind that I couldn’t sing. Oh, and never mind that talent agents don’t wander the streets of Staten Island plucking little girls from their piano benches to stardom. This was my dream, and I was sticking to it. While I didn’t make it to Broadway, I retooled the dream to be more realistic but, in my mind, no less dreamy, to be a full-time working actor. To achieve this, I studied constantly, renewed over and over again, and came back for more until I finally found myself working as a full-time actor at the Kennedy Center.My own version of sticking to the landing. Ultimately, the lessons of Rio’s Olympic dreamers and champions teach us all that dreams can come true and transform lives, but to truly transform your reality, now that takes something bigger: action.