Childhood dreams DO come true

By Lisa Sieren

This week I had the great privilege of seeing New Kids on the Block in concert (don’t roll your eyes, it really was a privilege). As a kid, I was a big NKOTB fan but never had the opportunity to see them in concert. Fifteen years later, I learned that childhood dreams do come true.

While brainstorming for this week’s blog and humming the band’s old school songs in my head, I started to think about my other hopes and dreams as a child. Most of us have figured out that our dreams as kids don’t always quite turn out the way we imagined and/or often take much longer than we planned. Advocacy is the same way. Some issues take years, decades or even generations to advance.

Let’s consider the women’s suffrage movement. Most often recognized as the kickoff to women’s suffrage movement is the Seneca Falls Convention that occurred in 1848. It was there that the Declaration of Sentiments was signed—the document that declared "all men and women were created equal." The struggle to allow women the right to vote continued until the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. It took more than seventy years of advocacy for success to occur. More than seventy years.

In case you were wondering, those 70+ years were not a piece of cake for suffragists. Those seventy years included not only successes, but also setbacks and disagreements. Yet the suffragists believed in their work and eventually their advocacy was paid in full. As a female who exercises the right to vote, I am very thankful for the tenacity of the suffragists.

Sometimes I wish that I could snap my fingers and suddenly my advocacy goals would be achieved. Unfortunately, however, more often than not that is not reality. But with hard work and continuous advocacy, we may one day find success. Whatever your issue, whatever you are advocating for, stick with it. Like NKOTB, all good things come full circle.

Editor's note: As a young girl, Lisa rejected Ken dolls in favor of her NKOTB doll collection. This fact alone may help you, as it did me, to better understand why childhood dreams are a lot like advocacy goals. Or not.