Helping Others Build Dreams

Hello and Happy Holidays from MySelf Builder. Today we're talking about helping others make their dreams come true. In life, it's easy to become fixated on what we want to accomplish for ourselves and our personal needs. There's nothing wrong with that. As humans, we have to take care of ourselves and should always work towards becoming our best, accomplishing our goals, and living a good, purposeful life.

But when we have the opportunity to impact someone else's life in a positive way, we increase our capacity to create change and influence others. Think of a team sport like basketball, where each player has the same goal of winning games and titles. By practicing, learning and playing together, each team member becomes stronger. Coaches, trainers, referees, supporters and fans add value to the team and have the ability to influence each player's actions, their mindset, and manage the conditions for the team to be successful. Sometimes, we may have a dream or goal that does not turn out exactly how we expected or hoped it would. Don't get discouraged. Instead of becoming bitter, angry or jealous, ask, "How can I help make someone else's dream come true?" If you ask some of the most famous people on earth what's the key to their success, you'd hear many of them respond by listing the team of people who support them. Think about acceptance speeches at awards shows that a famous person gives once they've won. Artists and musicians need songwriters and producers to help make successful records. Actors and on-screen talent need showrunners, directors and a team of production assistants to make movies and television programming. Have you ever seen how long the end credits are for movies and the hundreds of people that it takes to produce a film? I was asked a lot as a child what I wanted to be once I grew up. Over the years, the answers ranged from becoming a doctor or lawyer to working for the FBI or media company. In high school, I became very interested in journalism. I took an introduction to journalism course, which then led to me joining the newspaper staff. Newspaper became my favorite part of being in school. I loved writing about sports and entertainment, interviewing people and designing each edition. I also loved my sports and entertainment marketing courses. When I went to college, I decided to major in communications. I took classes in media writing, television production, cinema and public speaking. I went on to complete an internship in DC, working for a small video communications firm. One of the assignments required another intern and I to be prepared to cover a live news story at any time and complete a full news video package with recording, writing, editing and publishing. We ended up covering a protest outside of the US Supreme Court. It was very stressful with people marching and chanting, holding up signs, trying to find people to interview who could present different viewpoints about the issue and managing all of the equipment. That experience allowed me to realize that I was not ready to become a reporter just yet. I still had a passion and interest in this field however. Recently, that passion and interest led to the development of a student news team at the school I've worked at over the last 5 years. When my team and I reached out to see if students would be interested in having a newsroom, we received more applications than we anticipated.

And now with just a few student news team meetings underway and the first production being in the early stages of development, the group of students who were selected to serve on the team received a surprise visit from WXII News 12 Anchor Davontè McKenith. He was extremely kind and took the time to meet and speak with each student group and was impressed with all of their hard work. Even though my plans changed years ago when I decided to begin my post-college career in education, seeing the excitement, curiosity and willingness to learn about news production from young people has been rewarding and fulfilling. This experience serves as a reminder, especially during this holiday season at a time when people can become consumed with buying or receiving the best present, that the greatest gift is to help others build new dreams. Keep Building!