Earlier this year I watched some of the MTV Movie Awards. There was an award given and an acceptance speech that has stuck with me. Emma Stone was inspiring and challenging…especially if you’re a girl with a dream (and I classify myself as one!) I’ve been thinking about her words the past couple days and thought I’d share it with you. I hope you’re inspired to work harder, try more and dream bigger!

“Thank you, I’m a crier,” she said. “So, I looked up the actual definition of trailblazer, and it means someone who blazes a trail to be followed by others. And that’s an honor to hear you’re being associated with a concept like that.

“But the only thing I can hope that an award inspires is originality,” she added, “because the trailblazers I’ve looked up to and been inspired by are people like Gilda Radner and Bill Murray and John Candy and Charlie Chaplin and the Beatles and J.D. Salinger. Lorne Michaels, who reminds me the importance of comedy, and Cameron Crowe, whose work consistently reminds me of why I want to be an actor.”

After thanking her icons, Stone offered some inspiration to others.

“Those people are my creative trailblazers, but I’m not following any of their paths, and what’s incredible about them is they help make me want to be more myself because they’re all originals,” she said. “And I hope that you’ll find your trailblazers. And, trust me, I do not need to be one of them. I probably shouldn’t be one of them,” she laughed. “But that you’ll continue to harness your own originality and what makes you unique ’cause I know that when you’re a teenager — sometimes when you’re an adult — what sets you apart can sometimes feel like a burden and it’s not. And a lot of the time, it’s what makes you great. So I kind of sound like I live in a van down by the river right now.

“But I am deeply touched and grateful for this,” she said in closing.

My two favorite parts are:

“But that you’ll continue to harness your own originality and what makes you unique ’cause I know that when you’re a teenager — sometimes when you’re an adult — what sets you apart can sometimes feel like a burden and it’s not. And a lot of the time, it’s what makes you great.”

“I’m not following any of their paths, and what’s incredible about them is they help make me want to be more myself because they’re all originals,”

A song on my first record was called “Be Who You Are”….original or unique, whatever you want to call it, can be lonely and painful some of the time. I know from experience. But, there is much joy and I believe greater joy in being yourself…not some version of somebody else but the uniquely created God made you. We can all be trailblazers if we choose to be.

“Saddle up your horses, we’ve got a trail to blaze.” 🙂