A Dream Come True

This is a guest post written by Kristen Parry. Kristen is a firm believer in Happiness and Love as the two prominent pillars of life. She is the program manager for The Smile Project and focuses on the ambassador program. A note from Liz… this should have been posted last month. My apologies, Kristen. However, you can apply its moral to the World Cup, still happening this month.

The Stanley Cup Finals are my SuperBowl. I’ve never been a huge sports person, but I am a HUGE hockey person. There’s nothing like the feeling of NHL hockey in the fall, knowing I can look forward to watching the Pens write another chapter in their legacy, one game at a time.

And while I’ll enter every single season with the highest (occasionally delusional) hopes that the Pens will bring the cup back to Pittsburgh that year, I’ll watch the Stanley Cup Finals no matter who is playing. With one notable exception (here’s looking at you, Flyers,) I’ll be happy for whoever wins… begrudgingly, maybe.

But no matter who it is, the moment the final horns sounds and the sticks, helmets, and gloves go flying, I start crying. Why? I think of each of these grown men as little kids with a dream.

Kids in the learn to skate program toddling around on the ice. Kids in the mites program chasing the puck in a clump only to fall like dominoes when the first kid goes down. High school kids playing for their fans at the local rinks. Young men playing in college or dedicating themselves to competitive teams with a hope and a dream to play in the show.

I think of the families sacrificing weekends—and sisters sacrificing sleep—to be at games and tournaments.

The sheer joy you see on their faces when it’s their turn to hoist that 34.5-pound cup overhead is exclusively the joy of a child with a dream mixed with a man who completed a lifetime of work to get there.

If you’re not a hockey person, you can change the sport to whatever you like. But the idea of adults never giving up on their childhood dreams and seeing that dream come true—sometimes decades later—is always one of my favorite parts of June. Congratulations to the Carolina Hurricanes, and let’s go Pens for the 2026-2027 season… It’ll be our year 😉