"Alright, let's go to sleep man," my best friend Tom Farndon said. "You have a big day tomorrow." Just hours ago, we had both arrived in DC; he came from NY, I from Boston. We burned the midnight oil, pouring over last minute strategies before the event tomorrow. The event that might change my life forever. I struggled to go to bed. I was too busy dreaming.
The Fulbright National Conference was held at the elegant, opulent Hyatt Regency Hotel in Capitol Hill. We arrived bright and early at 6am and went straight into the room to set up our booth. Minutes afterward, a nice quiet middle aged woman shuffled into the room and started setting up her booth. We helped her out and we soon learned that she started her own organization that teaches art classes in other countries. "My dream is to have it spread all over the world," she said.
I wrote on both sides of my booth with a black sharpie marker "What's YOUR dream?" and people responded. They were as general as "world peace," or as specific as "help for my cousin in Germany." Throughout the day, I heard more uttered dreams. When asked when the United States will ever move past racism, Howard University President Wayne Frederick said "it's a journey without a destination, but it is a journey worth taking." His institution, along with the representatives from Lowes, Morgan Stanley, and Deloitte, all envisioned a workplace of equality. That is their dream.
That night was the Fulbright Gala and Prize Ceremony, the event where I would give my speech. The night was a blur of great conversations and a general feeling of nervousness, but before I knew it, I was up on stage, giving my speech. For one second, as the big lights flashed before my eyes, a small voice in my head said "who the hell are you to give a speech in front of so many important people? You're just an ordinary graduate student." But then I thought of the subject of my speech: Julio Moreno. Julio is from the rural town of San Carlos, and he travels almost 4 hours to get to the University of Panama to take English classes, then 4 hours back to help his parents at home. That's such an exhausting daily journey. But Julio does it because it is his dream to learn English. And that dream led him to apply and receive the Dream Scholarship. That dream led him to teach English classes in his rural town once he returned from the US. And it's that dream that is leading him to apply for his own Fulbright now to get a Masters degree in the US. I thought to myself: "Who am I NOT to tell Julio's story?" So I took a deep breath, and let it all out on the stage.
Afterwards, people kept saying how inspired they were by the speech. I smiled. They were inspired by Julio's dream.
Today is Julio's birthday. Happy birthday to the biggest dreamer of them all.