The Power of Dreaming Big: NFL Player Predicts His Future in Fourth Grade

Let’s start the New Year off on an inspirational and positive note. For those of you who don’t follow football or missed this, it was recently discovered that Colin Kaepernick, starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, wrote a letter to himself when he was in the fourth grade detailing his plans for the future. (You can see a copy of the letter and his fourth grade picture here.) Young Kaepernick wrote:

“I’m 5 ft 2 inches 91 pounds. Good athelet. I think in 7 years I will be between 6 ft- to 6 ft 4 inches 190 pounds. I hope I go to a good college in football then go to the pros and play on the niners or the packers even if they aren’t good in seven years. My friends are Jason, Kyler, Leo, Spencer, Mark and Jacob. Sincerly Colin”

Not only did Kaepernick call his academic journey, profession and team, he even nailed his height (he is 6’4″). How cool is that? And considering the odds of this adorable biracial fourth grader making it to the NFL, never mind being the starting QB for the team of his dreams, how inspirational is that?

The moral of this story, which we should share with our boys, is not to be afraid to Dream Big. Let’s encourage our young boys to dream of their futures, write down those dreams, and keep them in a safe place (with our help) for future reflection. Many schools have this as an in-class assignment, and if they do, be sure to keep track of those letters or notes over the years. If your son’s school doesn’t assign this, you might want to make this a weekend project. No comments about or criticism of whatever he comes up with, just encourage the dreaming. The goal is not to have him predict a superstar career (or the career of your dreams), but to begin thinking and dreaming of his future, and imagining it to be wonderful.