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I happen to be one who believes that our dreams should be huge. Dream small and you will achieve small things. Dream big and even if you don't quite make it, think about how much you will have still achieved.

I really never had big dreams. I grew up in a community that was both rural and a bit uneducated. Setting yourself apart from the pack was discouraged.

I lived on the outskirts of town, sort of out in the country, surrounded by farms. From about age 10 on, I could be found summer mornings on my bicycle (even then) headed into "town" for buddies and play. We might meet at the only baseball park in town and play pickup games (there was no Little League).

We played tennis even at that age and in a town that had no public courts. We had a deal with the owners of both of the town's private courts to use their courts. In turn, we agreed to keep them clean and stay quiet. We sometimes played from dawn to dusk.

We might hit one of the many of our favorite swimming holes, which wasn't hard since the Tennessee River wrapped around the whole town.

Ronnie, Teddy, Tony, Little Bill, Mode', Gary -- street football, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at Granny Miller's house, snow cones on Ferry Street.

Girls were never far from our mind and everyone wanted to be a football star.

But never once did we dream about being doctors or astronauts or going to faraway places. A Florida beach was as far away as our world extended. One buddy took his first trip out of our home county when we were getting him fitted in Knoxville for a junior/senior prom tuxedo. We went to Krystal on the way back and he had 21.

Most ambitions were confined to getting married, finding a job in one of the local factories and maybe someday to build a house of my own.

Despite good grades and surprisingly good ACT scores, my high school guidance counselor recommended that I attend a six-week TV repair school in Chattanooga. I have nothing against TV repairmen -- it is an honorable profession and some of the smartest people I know do it -- it's just that even then I knew there was something more in store for me.

I was never NOT going to college.

My dad finished the sixth grade before going to work in the local mill to support his family. My mother finished high school but college was never an opportunity she had. I was most definitely the first person in the entire family to attend college.

I thought I would go to college for four years, find a job and build a life.

Along the way, life changed (or maybe I did). I eventually got several college degrees, including one that came with a doctorate. Several high school teachers are rolling over in their graves and one guidance counselor should be perpetually embarrassed for discouraging my college plans.

To this day, I still don't know where I got that college ambition. Certainly my parents influenced that. Maybe it was a generational change toward being better educated. Maybe it was the draft deferment that came with staying in college. Divine intervention has long played a part in my life.

Along the way, I encountered people that changed me. I made friends from all parts of the country. College professors, like Charles Reynolds who might have been controversial but who forced you to use your brain and could spot a faker a mile away, and Charles Barrett of the English Department who turned me on to the written word. Dr. Ed Howley believed in me. I somehow figured out that campus life meant more than Saturday football games.

I learned of distant lands, good music, interesting literature and great food. I still married a girl from my hometown but there's a pretty good chance that this good marriage has lasted for 33 years and counting because we share so many dreams.

So if anybody tries to limit your dreams, run away from them. Surround yourself only with those who support your dreams. Listen only to those who tell you that you can do anything you want to. Who knows? You might even be President some day.

Joe Black, PT, DPT, SCS, ATC is a physical therapist and athletic trainer at Total Rehabilitation and is Manager of Outpatient Rehabilitation for Blount Memorial Hospital. Write to him at Joe Black, PT, DPT, SCS, ATC is a physical therapist and athletic trainer at Total Rehabilitation and is Manager of Outpatient Rehabilitation for Blount Memorial Hospital. Write to him at joeblackdpt@gmail.com