Geoff, Will, and John—Dreams and Opportunities

Not too impressed? I hardly am. Names you’ve seen a hundred times and heard a thousand more; television, newspapers, your best friends, roll call during class, the list goes on. Guaranteed you know, or have personally met a guy who has one of these three names as their first name. Interesting that a man’s, or a woman’s, first name is not the name which brings them their glory, honor, and legacy. A first name wastes away as much as the word seed wastes away in name to grow into an oak, a fir, a maple. The name that lasts is the last name, it is the name that gives us honor, puts us on a pedestal of glory, and memorializes our legacy through all time and eternity.
Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton might be the names you are more familiar with that bring a flood of impressions, mostly those of respect and awe. Family names. Like Malcolm Gladwell spoke of in his book Outliers, successful people are largely successful due to the opportunities they were offered due to their family circumstances. If you are reading this, take stock into what your last name has offered you by way of opportunities. Hardly has the world seen a person dig themselves up from the dregs of society and find themselves on the pinnacle of greatness. There is almost always an opportunity involved.
So don’t worry if your last name isn’t Carnegie, Gates, Shakespeare, Chaucer, or Van Gogh. Worry only that you take the opportunity when it comes to you. It may only come once, quickly, forcefully, or fearfully. You will imprint your name on the books of history as you take that one opportunity that is given to all great people. We make our opportunities, we fight for them, we live for them, and they raise our spirits and our hopes. Never let opportunity pass you by. Instead grasp it and snatch it from the world that dreams are made of, our dreams, hopes, and ambitions.