Claire Fahy
Sports Editor
Dreams are powerful. They begin as fantasies, planted when we are young. As we grow, they are cultivated, growing stronger and more purposeful,
or become weeded out, too weak to survive in their hostile climate. Sometimes dreams do not survive. We grow out of them or they abandon us and we move on, planting new seeds of inspiration in their place.
Athletic dreams are the most fickle in nature. It is often the case that we choose these dreams, but they do not reciprocate the favor. We try and we want and we dream and it seems useless. It isn’t.
The meteoric rise of newfound NBA star Jeremy Lin is a testament to the idiom “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Over the course of a few weeks and a lot of show stopping, jaw-dropping moves, Lin led the New York Knicks on a winning streak that would greatly improve their record and make them a potential playoff contender. Where was Lin before those few weeks? Sleeping on his brother’s couch, waiting for a contract after being waived by both the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets.
It seems everyone has something to say about “Linsanity” — Lin’s image graces the front page of most sport sections in the United States and Taiwan, his parents’ home country. They focus on his Cinderella, or “Lin-deralla,” story, how he went to Harvard un-recruited and was then undrafted, only to be picked up by his hometown professional team and cut a year later. Others focus on his modesty and manners, instilled in him by his devout Christian parents, bringing still others to focus on his faith and how it has played into his perseverance.
I focus on the tenacity of dreams. Not only Lin’s, which were strong enough to sustain countless blows and weather multiple setbacks, but his parents’ American Dream — his father watching tapes of the NBA in Taiwan and wishing he could play, only to one day sit in a sold-out Madison Square Garden, taking in the spectacle that is his son’s sudden fandom.
When I was a freshman on JV basketball, we had all-program team bonding with the varsity and freshman squads. Every team member received water bottles from Athletic Direction Elena DeSantis with specifically tailored quotes for each player — a girl who suffered from chronic injury receiving Lance Armstrong’s motto “Pain is temporary.” My water bottle held a quote from Gale Sayers that I hold to be inherently true.
“If you want to make it bad enough, no matter how bad it is, you can make it.”
What I have in common with Sayers and Lin is simple. We all dream.
