When was the last time you made someone's dream come true?
In this day and age, it's hard to even concoct a dream, let alone realizing them. Dreams are just not in vogue anymore. Wait, I don't even think the word "vogue" is in vogue anymore. So many things we can buy now that'll make us happy... who needs dreams anyway?
The story I'm about to share with you is not about me or any of my dreams. It's about an woman by the name of Hasmik which means Jasmin in Armenian. For those of your who are not botanically inclined, Jasmin is a shrub or vine having fragrant flowers emply used in perfumery.
Jasmin arrived in the US with her two kids in August of '92. Being a single parents, she started right off the bat, working at a family-owned Dry Cleaning store. After paying all the bills including a hefty college tuition for her teenagers, there wasn't much left at the end of the day. While she may have had a tremendous amount of ambition and charm, she remained at that Dry Cleaner's working 9 to 5. Why? It was fear that kept her there for the last 15 years and up to present day. Fear that she couldn't provide for her children as she had once promised she would as a single parent. Beware, a bad job can plague your spirit and it can stump your dreams until they're buried so deep into the ground that you can't see them anymore. You feel there's no way out unless you get fired or hit the jackpot.
Jasmin's customers and co-workers could never imagine the talent that she kept hidden on her side of the counter. A talent that no Dry Cleaner's employee could have and still work there. That gift was music and Jasmin's talent was in her voice, a voice of gold. A voice that has aged like wine through years of good and bad and terrible experiences. When you hear her throaty vocals, you are suddenly transported back through time and you can actually feel the heartache in her songs. Growing up, Jasmin would sing for whoever would listen. As an adult, she would a small group of friends and familiy after dinner and a round of quiet applause were enough to please her. Around her children, she would sing when she was happy. And she would sing when she was sad.
You may ask me how I know all this. You see, Jasmin is my dear mother, and I've grown up with her beautiful voice as the soundtrack of my life.
It was two months ago, in September of 2007, when a truly original and ingenious idea hit me. It was a random thought, but so perfect, that I knew nothing would stand in its way. With just a few hundred dollars, I was going to make my mother's greatest dream come true!On the following month, on the morning of October 4th, we woke her up for her birthday and took her to breakfast. While she may have been happy enough just by the mere fact that we had all taken her to breakfast, I told her the real surprise had yet to come. In fact, this surprise was so great that it would surely surpass any other gift she had or would ever receive in her life.Her mind started working overtime. "Did you sell a script?" "Is it something relating to your job?" "Something about Sherli?"What surprised me most was that all her questions revolved around me or my sister having attained some sort of success.
My mother had neglected her own aspirations for so long and that she seemed to have replaced her dreams with our dreams. Now, she couldn't grasp the surprise had nothing to do with us, but revolved entirely around her.We sat in the car and drove to Burbank and I gave her a series of clues such as "We're going to a house and a man is waiting for us there." "Is it Steven Spielburger hiring you to direct a movie?" she asked! "No, mother. And it's not Spiegelberger, it's Spielberg."Finally, we parked and walked toward the house.After knocking on the door, a young Armenian man opened still in his pajamas, then led us through the living room toward the backyard where another man was waiting. "Ok mother, now we follow him," as I observed my mother more confused than ever. Finally, the second man lead us into a small room built in the back of the house and as we walked in, my Mother slowly realized what was happening. The keyboards, the recording equipment, the professional microphone, the headphones and all the works. We were going to professionaly record her voice and mix it with a full arrangement of instruments.Needless to say, she was shocked. She burst into mad laughter for a good five minutes without completely comprehending what I was telling her. Once she came back down from 7th Heaven, she took a deep breath and approached the microphone. She took directions from the musician like a real pro as if she had done this sort of thing all her life. Maybe she had. Maybe she had rehearsed this exact moment a million times in her head. She sang her first song and everything was still. It was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Even the professional musician was shocked. "I see artists come and go all the time, but no one has the emotional depth that your mother has, and no one ever sings it perfectly the first time through!" he exclaimed.He had loved my mother's voice so much that he offered a second visit to record two more songs at no additional charge.
A few days later, we returned to record three more songs. The following week, we recorded three more songs. With the heartbreaking lyrics and music, and driven by powerhouse vocals, my mother's first music album was officially in motion and I was not going to stop halfway! I pulled all the stops. I charged my credit card and professionally designed a logo and a complete CD case, the whole works!
The Album entitled Love Songs From Far Away Lands was released yesterday on Monday, December 17th, 2007. Since its release, it has already sold 40 copies! You can imagine how ecstatic my mother is. You can just imagine how shocked her customers are as they admire the music in the store before they find out the tiny woman behind the counter is the singer with the powerful voice.
Now who says Dreams don't come true? If you have a dream and you have faith in God, please take stock in this story and know the truth about Dreams… Just like Jasmines, they will bloom in full fragrance if you never ever quit tending them.
To Buy your own copy, visit:
www.JasminAlbum.com
Production Company:
www.Spotonmediatv.com
If you liked this article, you may be interested in:
Commercial Production
Creative Branding
Television Ad Storytelling
Branding Exercises
Infomercial Production
DR Productions
DR Marketing
Direct Response Production
Direct Response Commercial
Infographics
No comments:
Post a Comment