{"id":4177,"date":"2013-10-09T14:49:30","date_gmt":"2013-10-09T18:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=4177"},"modified":"2013-10-16T16:32:17","modified_gmt":"2013-10-16T20:32:17","slug":"you-dont-have-to-reach-for-the-stars-to-achieve-your-dreams-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/you-dont-have-to-reach-for-the-stars-to-achieve-your-dreams-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"You don\u2019t have to reach for the stars to achieve your dreams: Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Doner<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pursuing your dreams and goals isn\u2019t as hard as it may seem. That\u2019s the message astronaut and Southlake CEO, Dr. Dave Williams, had for students at Pickering College during a special presentation last week.<\/p>\n

This opportunity to hear Dr. Williams\u2019 story was awarded to Pickering College, as the top fundraising school in the lead-up to the 2013 Run or Walk for Southlake. The school raised $4,378 to benefit the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelieve in yourself and believe in your dreams,\u201d he said to a gymnasium full of wide-eyed students. \u201cIt\u2019s all about having the courage to pursue our dreams and working hard, the importance of passion and perseverance to enable us to go where we want to go in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Williams began describing his foray into the sciences and to becoming a physician. He told students that an ad in the paper led to him applying to become an astronaut, a lifelong dream. He never let those dreams escape him and encouraged students to do the same, noting that as people grow up, they tend to become more conservative and take fewer risks to do what they love.<\/p>\n

Through passion, persistence and performance, he reassured the students that they can be who they want to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy advice would be, first of all, find something that you\u2019re truly passionate about,\u201d he said. \u201cFind that dream; then believing in yourself to have the courage to pursue those dreams and go through all the ups and downs, and when it seems really tough to persevere and never give up.
\n\u201cGenerally it has worked out for me and it has been quite a ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Williams said he first started dreaming about going into space back in 1961, when he saw the Golden Hawks aerobatic flying team in Montreal, as well as seeing Buzz Aldren and his team first set foot on the moon.<\/p>\n

Little did he know that later in life, he would not only eventually rub elbows with Aldren, but would also go on to set a Canadian record for spacewalking with trips to space in 1998 and 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was out of this world,\u201d he said. \u201cIn terms of the most amazing things I\u2019ve done in my life, being in space and doing the spacewalks was the most amazing and incredible experience. In terms of the most meaningful things that I have done in my life, being a physician and running a hospital.\u201d
\nThe two grade nine students who helped organize the fundraising campaign at their school, Cydney Stevenson and Ashley Jeppesen, said Dr. Williams\u2019 message resonated among their peers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really inspiring and crazy to see that he actually did that and he\u2019s standing right here,\u201d Stevenson said.<\/p>\n

Added Jeppesen: \u201cHis message was to go through with anything that you really want to do in life. Like he said, \u2018if you can dream it, you can do it.\u2019\u201d
\nThe two were also surprised with how much their school raised in order to make the visit from Dr. Williams possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just an idea that we were throwing around and then I was kind of shocked at how an idea happened and came together,\u201d Jeppesen said.
\n\u201cWe were really shocked with how much money we raised. Our goal was $400 and we raised over $4,000, so that was really awesome.\u201d
\nDr. Williams also had some kind words for Pickering College and its hardworking students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what\u2019s really exciting about Pickering College is their new approach and talking about becoming courageous agents of change,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we think about all the kids that are here today, they are truly the next generation and they\u2019re going to be the next ones going out and confronting the challenges that we all have to deal with and it\u2019s very exciting to be able to share my experiences with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pursuing your dreams and goals isn\u2019t as hard as it may seem. That\u2019s the message astronaut and Southlake CEO, Dr. Dave Williams, had for students at Pickering College during a special presentation last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-15n","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-04 10:47:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/2013-10-09-07.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}