Victoria H. is a 17-year-old high school junior from Montgomery, Ala. She was one of the 100 students selected to participate in the 2018 Disney Dreamers Academy. She wrote about her experience for a journalism project at the event. Victoria was selected for an internship at this summer’s ESSENCE Music Festival.
In order to dream BIG you must have the aspects of a dreamer: imagination, aspiration, leadership, creativity, plans, and purpose. So often people recognize the dreamer by the dream and not what created it. When the camera is off, what happens “behind the dreams?” Jonathon Sprinkles stated that “Dreams develop in the dark.” Dreamers can relate to that because of the late nights and early mornings spent working towards our goals.
During the Disney Dreamers Academy we had the opportunity to encounter realness at its best. At the welcoming ceremony, Mr. Harvey quoted that “You cannot accomplish your dream and get eight hours of sleep everyday.” Dreamers realized that in the real world, to achieve dreams, long hours of hard work is crucial.
To Be100, parents are consistently behind the dreams supporting us. Receiving something as little as a text, shows how much they care. Knowing that they are proud motivates and pushes us!
From laughing at lunch to riding roller coasters, dreamers get to make lifetime friends and memories. Yet, in spite of how outgoing dreamers can be, we have to sometimes boost our confidence. Some dreamers pray while others motivate themselves through the mirror.
This weekend we had to step outside our comfort zone, work with strangers, tell our stories, be vulnerable, and extremely social. Each dreamer was willing to do whatever it took to take advantage of this opportunity. What we see today is because of what work happened “behind the dreams.”
