I have to admit I didn't sleep much the night before I was to speak at Ankeny's Parkview Middle School. Parkview is the largest middle school in Iowa boasting 1250 sixth and seventh graders. In addition, middle school students are a hard audience to reach especially with me trying to inspire them to live out their dreams. Most teenagers have already experienced a few let downs in their lives and I was out to re-inspire them to use their gifts to become successful leaders.

Mike Nieland greeted me at the door. Mr. Nieland had everything already planned including the room which was used as a study hall. It was quite intimidating seeing such a large empty room the size of many country schools' gyms that I had already visited. The plan was to speak to approximately 300 students in four one hour sessions.

Mr. Nieland and I had many of the same shared values. Like me, Mike grew up loving baseball in his home town of Dubuque. He said at one time Dubuque was a mecca for baseball. Mike also has a passion for teaching excellence having been a teacher for over 30 years. Mike helped ease my anxiety through his terrific support. He'd have fit in nicely with our gang and no doubt we had already shared many of the same baseball adventures.

I was amazed when I asked the first set of seventh grade students for volunteers for a game of shadow baseball that nearly 200 hands were raised. And the students I had selected jumped up and cheered in their excitement. We had so much fun and gelled so well that the hour passed by quickly.

I called on all four groups to use their special gifts that such a prestigious school district like Ankeny offered them in terms of academic excellence to become the leaders of tomorrow. The room fell silent when I began to read Jordan Saddoris's essay on Your American Dream. Jordan is a seventh grader at Parkview and chose to enter my Iowa writing contest. Jordan wrote: "I think that America stands for everyone's dream coming together and making a magnificent society that anyone can thrive in. Small towns grow into big cities, a family owned business turns into an international corporation, a Scottish immigrant who comes to America with nothing and dies a billionaire. All of these show that your American Dream is out there alive and well; now you just have to find the way to achieve it."

Through Jordan's inspirational words the students from Parkview learned that hope and dreams come through individual achievement and because of their fortunate situations opportunites - at least for many of them - were unlimited.

It is my hope that these students will find it in their heart to share such wealth with others not so fortunate.