PREFACE
“If you don’t have a dream,
how can you have a dream come true?”
~Jiminy Cricket~
hen
thinking of a title for this book I almost went with
No,
Not Like Rudy. Inevitably, whenever someone found
out I was a walk-on with the Notre Dame football team,
they would say, “Oh, like Rudy.”
I realize the tale of a Notre Dame football walk-on has
been well
documented in the movie Rudy. The movie helped to put
the Notre
Dame walk-on in the mind’s eye of many fans and
moviegoers alike. I
met the movie’s namesake, Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger
on two occasions. I
have tremendous respect for what he accomplished
and he is a true testament
to the power of hard work and perseverance. With
that being said,
and I speak on behalf of all of my walk-on teammates,
we never endeavored
to be the next Rudy. Rather, we constantly tried
to fight the stereotype
of being the hard worker who did not quite measure
up in terms of
athletic ability. Our goal as walk-ons was never
to only play a minor role
without speaking lines. Our goal was to play and
contribute.
I enjoyed some of
the greatest moments of my life during my time
at Notre Dame. I also experienced some of the most
frustrating and
disappointing moments while there. I fought a constant
battle of mind over circumstance and truly believed
good things would eventually
happen, even when the light at the end of the tunnel
seemed a thousand
miles away; if I could even see it at all.
In Paradise Lost, Milton said, “The mind is its
own place and in
itself can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven.” The
truth of these
words ring so true to me when I reflect on my time
at Notre Dame.
The world and your circumstance are truly how you
envision them. No
matter what the reality of the situation was, I always
envisioned myself
being successful and achieving my dreams. The ability
to create my own
reality through my attitude is probably the single
most important lesson
I learned. A positive attitude and a strong work
ethic can overcome
anything.
But, this book is not the work of Milton; it is simply
the story of a
journey I embarked on when I was five years old. Notre
Dame stuck to
my heart then, the same way cotton candy sticks to
a little boy’s nose.
It was during these formative years I first set my
sights on playing football
at Notre Dame. My parents always encouraged me to
dream big
dreams, and this was one advantage I had in the pursuit
of this goal. I
also never entertained the possibility it might not
happen. It was one of
those things, where deep down, I knew I could do
it; I knew I could play
football for Notre Dame.
In order to preface
this book I think it is important to tell you a
little bit about me. I suffer from a quality I call
wonderfully delusional.
I think there is nothing I cannot accomplish. I believe
if I set my mind
to something, I can attain it. If I wanted to be
president, I believe I could
be. If I wanted to travel to outer space or climb
Mt. Everest, I think I
could do that too! I do not believe we are put on
this earth to fail. I
truly believe we were created in His image and likeness
and engineered
for success. It is my sincere belief if people just
simply had more confidence in themselves, their lives would be infinitely
happier. As Nelson
Mandela said in his 1994 inaugural speech:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our
light, not
our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves,
who am
I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who
are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing
small does not serve the world. There is nothing
enlightened about
shrinking so that other people won’t feel
insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.”
