Column: Celebrate opportunity, pursue your happiness

Another Memorial Day has come. Today we observe the sacrifices of men and women who gave the last full measure of devotion in defense of the United States of America.

I was going to write about how this year marks the sesquicentennial of Decoration Day, predecessor to the modern Memorial Day holiday.

Frankly, though, I want to celebrate today as much as observe those who died serving our American nation and defending her liberty.

I have an important message for the high school graduating class of 2018. Carson High School graduates this year's seniors on Saturday, June 9 and I want to dedicate today's column to them.

In 1776, Thomas Jefferson authored the Declaration of Independence, within which he penned these immortalized words: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

What Jefferson referred to at the end was opportunity, something that countless men and women since then have fought and died to protect and defend for future generations.

As high school graduates, you, too, have the same opportunity that generations before you have had. The pursuit of happiness is as much a part of our freedom as liberty.

Don't let the cynics and the pessimists convince you that you can't do something, because the odds are against you, that social injustices will hold you back, or that prejudices will keep you down.

Those are bold-faced lies meant to keep you in a place others want you to exist by their standards and their rules. They are said to discourage you from reaching for your own personal success and prompt you to remain angry about the circumstances that life has dealt you.

We all face challenges in life, but we should never use those as excuses for not pursuing our dreams and achieving our goals.

The world is full of regret and people who spend their days brooding over the chances they didn't take, or the dreams they didn't chase after.

Don't become one of them.

I have had to fight these persuasive demons who have whispered to me over the years that my dreams are long odds and I'd be better off settling for what I know I can do instead of what I set out to achieve.

I developed a disability about five years ago, a potentially very rare neuromuscular disease that has no cure and could progress over time. You'd be safe in assuming that Lou Gehrig, Jerry's kids and me have some things in common.

But I refuse to let a disability define me or determine the course of my life. I will not exist in a box or be defined as a conventionally-shaped peg fashioned by society and culture to fit into certain holes.

I've wanted to be a teacher since I was 13 years old. Not a rock star, astronaut, science fiction movie maker, or adventuring archaeologist like many of the other kids of my generation.

A teacher, like Raymond and Amy Kodera, two of my most beloved childhood educators who had planted that seed in me when was very young, convincing me later of my passion for helping others.

One year ago, the first class of students I ever taught in my life graduated. Others would follow throughout the year, but my physical condition had also deteriorated to a point where I had to make a difficult decision to walk away.

I could have receded into the darkness, seething about how my dream ended, and how life has thrown me a cruel curve ball.

But if I do that, then the cynics and the pessimists win, and I turn down the gift that so many Americans fought and died to preserve for me.

Opportunity is what sets our nation apart from others. It's what makes America special.

I may have begun a different chapter in my life this year, but my story is far from over. Either is my dream or its pursuit.

One day I will be back in the classroom, helping others get closer to achieving their goals and realizing their dreams.

Your life will have setbacks. That's simply the reality of our human condition. How we respond to those determines our outcomes.

Benjamin Solomon Carson, M.D., current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and a retired world-renowned pediatric neurosurgeon, could have listened to the voices of defeat screaming in his head.

He was raised in his formative years by a single mother, who held down multiple jobs to provide for her two boys. Carson suffered from violent anger outbursts as a youth, once attempting to strike his mother in the head with a hammer and even thrusting a knife at a classmate.

At that point Carson realized he would never achieve his dreams of becoming a physician if he didn't change his behavior and rise above his circumstances.

In those days, American society was rife with racial unrest in the struggle for civil rights. There were still many voices telling minorities like Carson that they had no place dreaming of becoming a doctor or anything else of renown and importance.

Carson, though, didn't listen to them. He immediately began working on himself, changing from an angry youth marching down the path toward a violent end to one focused on chasing his childhood dream.

He dove into books, immersing himself into studies and devoting his energy toward the achievement of what many contemporary cynics may have considered a long-shot of a dream.

He could have let society push him over, hold him down and convince him he was no good, doomed to failure, and a cultural cast off.

Dr. Ben Carson could have succumbed to a self-fulfilling prophecy and ended up as a statistic. Instead he rose to prominence and distinction as one of the world's most skilled physicians.

Then there's the story of Daniel Eugene Ruettiger, who became an inspiration to millions of others. Better known as Rudy, a movie was made honoring his pursuit of a seemingly impossible dream.

Rudy was an undersized and underachieving dreamer working a blue collar job when he decided he was going to follow his dream of playing football for the University of Notre Dame.

Many scoffed at his goal, convinced it was impossible. Notre Dame, after all, was the most prestigious football school of its day and many top prospects failed the rigorous admissions process.

Whatever made Rudy, five feet six inches tall and 165 pounds dripping wet, think he could do what other, more talented and touted athletes could not?

Rudy's belief in himself and in the values of dedication, determination and hard work led him to defy the most improbable of odds.

Rudy never actually made the team roster, per se. He was relegated to the practice squad for four years, subjected to some of the worst beatings a human being of his stature could face against players twice his size.

Battered, bruised and bloodied, Rudy kept getting back up and returning to the line for another round. His tenacity eventually became an inspiration to the rest of the Irish team.

In the season's last game of Rudy's final year of eligibility, he was given the opportunity to suit up. He was even on the field for the last few plays of the game, too.

Rudy had achieved his dream when so many others dismissed it as only a dream.

Here in America, there are countless stories of people facing long odds and defying the nay-sayers. Average, ordinary people whose determination to achieve have had the greatest lasting impact on future generations, and to the credibility of the founding principle of opportunity.

Look around you and become inspired by people in your own communities who have or who are pursuing their happiness. Cherish that value and never, ever let go of it.

Thank veterans and honor the military fallen who served so that you still have the freedom to follow opportunity wherever it leads you.

Dreams only die when you stop chasing them, so don't.