Giant Dreams: LUPITA NYONG’O: YOUR DREAMS ARE VALID!

If your dream is not envied, then it is not yet a dream, dream big! Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the former president of Indian once said, “Your dream is not what you see in sleep; your dream is that which keeps you from sleeping.” Everything that we see today is a product of someone’s dream. Every reality of today was someone’s imagination in the past and the easiest way to hinder the future is to kill the dreams of today. The size of your dream determines whether God will be involved or not, you don’t need God when your dream is small. Let your dream be so big that it becomes obvious that without God, it is bound to fail. Two men approached God with their dreams; one was dreaming for a loaf of bread, the other was dreaming for a bakery. God in his infinite wisdom gave the second man the bakery so that he can give the first man his bread. Big dreams attracts God, small dreams attracts people!

“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.”- Farrah Gray
Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present. Winning four Olympic gold medals was considered a giant dream during the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, and for Jesse Owens, all odds were working against him: a black American Athlete during an era where blacks were thought to be inferior and underlings. Jesse Owens is the first person ever to win four gold medals in the Olympic track history. These feats soon became legendary and Owen became an international celebrity by setting a seemingly unbeatable record at the 1936 Olympic Games. Jesse Owens, the son of a share cropper and grandson of a slave achieved what no Olympian before him had accomplished. His stunning victories and achievements of four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin has made him the best remembered of all Olympic athletes.

His outstanding performance during the 1936 Olympic Games did not only discredited heinous claims of the dictator, Adolph Hitler, he rendered Hitler’s master race theory irrelevant and affirmed that individuals excellence, rather than race or national origin, distinguishes one man from the other. Jesse Owens was not just a dreamer but a man with a giant dream. In one of the greatest performances in Olympic history, Owens captured gold in the 100metres, long jump, 200 meters and 4 x 100 meters relay, and a feat that would not be matched until American Carl Lewis did the same at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Although others have gone on to win more gold medals than Jesse, he remains the best remembered Olympic athlete because he achieved what no Olympian before or since has accomplished. He is remembered as the black Olympian that eventually became Hitler’s nightmare!

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”- Eleanor Roosevelt
His legendary performance made him both an Olympic hero and a lasting symbol of Black pride. In 1976, President Gerald Ford awarded Owens the Prestigious Medal of Freedom. In February, 1979, he returned to the White House, where President Carter presents him with the living Legend Award. Owens was posthumously awarded the congressional Gold medal in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush; the award was presented to his widow, Ruth S. Owens. An example of his international popularity comes from Africa, where the government of the Ivory Coast named the street on which the U.S embassy is located “Rue Jesse Owens”. In 1984, a street in Berlin was named in his honour. Through his life, he worked with youths, sharing of himself and the little material wealth that he had. He was as much the champion on the playground in the poorest neighbourhoods as he was on the oval of the Olympic Games. A true legend in his own time.
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, live the life you’ve imagined”

-Henry David Thoreau
The inspiring and ‘dare to dream’ story of the Kenyan prodigy, Lupita Nyong’o, is so fascinating, amazing and inspirational. Born Lupita Amondi Nyong’o in Mexico to Kenyan parents in 1983, a graduate of the Yale University School of Drama’s Acting Program. Lupita Nyong’o won the Oscar for best supporting actress at the 86th Academy Awards for her harrowing role as Patsy in Steve McQueen’s “12 years a slave’’. The film represented a major triumph in the life of the Mexican-born, Kenyan-raised actress, who came to acting relatively late, “12 years a slave” was, incredibly, her first film. Her most memorable scene was in which she receives a flogging for wanting to wash with soap.

The Kenyan actress, was definitely elated when she received the Oscar, the 31-year-old actress was up against some stiff competitions: Jennifer Lawrence for “American Hustle”. Julia Roberts for “August: Osage Country.” Sally Hawkins for ‘‘Blue Jasmine” and June Squibb for “Nebraska.” Needless to say, the “12 years a slave” winner looked stunned on her way to receive her Oscar. Nyong’o then delivered a beautiful, moving speech. The actress thanked McQueen for his dedication to the film, she also thanked Chiwetel Ejiofor, who played Northop, and saluted the star for “how deeply you went into telling Solomon’s Story.” In a moving acceptance speech, Nyong’o said: “It doesn’t escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is due to so much pain in someone else’s” – the slave whose story was told in Solomon memoir on which the film was based.

She expressed her wish that her unknown-to-Oscars trajectory would inspire someone watching the Oscar award at home to go for it. Lupita has been a positive representation of the new generation of African youth. She is a constant reminder that no matter whom you are, the background you are from or your circumstances in life, if you dream big and work hard then success is inevitable. Her story supports the fact that no matter what you give up in life, never give up on your dreams. When you are focused on your dream, your dream will make you a cynosure of all eyes. Lupita concluded her speech by saying; “When I look down at this golden statue, may it remind me and every little child that no matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid”.

“Dreams get you into the future and add excitement to the present”-Robert Conklin
Henry David Thoreau said, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live a life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” It is not a sin to start small, but it is a sin to remain small. I want to inspire the youths not to only dream big but also take small steps towards the achievement of their dreams, you are never too young to dream. Don’t ever let somebody tell you, you can’t do something. You have a dream, you have to protect, and the right to live your dream is in your hands. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure. If you don’t have some self-doubts and fear when you pursue a dream, then you haven’t dreamed big enough! Dare to dream big, take a leap of faith and unleash your potentials.

Mark Zuckerberg has the giant dream of connecting people together all over the world and the idea of Facebook was born. We are in dire need of youths who can dream of things that never were; youths with global dreams. Don’t downgrade your dream just to fit your reality; rather upgrade your conviction to match your destiny. It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams. Don’t ever give up on your dreams and when someone tells you “it can’t be done”, it doesn’t mean you can’t do it, it simply means you can’t do it with them!
“A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams”- John Barrymore