A Dream...Changed!

It was an evening after a charity basketball game at Randallstown High on May 7 , 2004 and a crowd of students and parents were leaving the school gym. Suddenly, shots rang out in the dark and a 16-year-old boy was lying in a pool of blood, along with three others. The most seriously wounded of the four was young William Thomas, a high school football player with dreams of NFL glory.

Within moments, this young life was changed, for the bullet had shattered his spinal cord. The dreams of NFL glory could be no more.



But this was not the end of the story. There was heart, determination, and grit within this young man, despite a body changed. But first, the injuries had to be treated and healed. Any dreams had to be deferred to the hard work of surgeries and grueling physical therapy. Life had to be learned with legs that did not work.

So, life started over. As the years passed, a new dream formed--one of inspiration and nonviolence. Life can still be good and can go on, as he shows others, whose lives have also changed similarly. Also, inspiration for students, now younger than he, who can learn how to pick yourself up in the midst of life's challenges and how greatly violence can shatter lives.

In the midst of all of his life worth living, today marks the day that William Thomas, now 24 years old, graduates with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Morgan State University. Yes, it is a life changed and a dream changed, as well. Good luck to you, William Thomas! I am just so proud of you, though I have never met you.
(Many thanks to the Baltimore Sun for the facts of the story; the opinions are my own.)