Saturday, March 6, 2010

I'm going to need a pink bus.

Did you ever have an idea that truly grabbed you?  One that came from who knows where, niggled into your brain and crooned it's siren song over and over?  How did you respond?  Did you heed it's call and take action or did you put it away till another day?  Did you take one step at a time until the idea became a reality ... or did you listen to reason, take note of all the ways it was impossible and resist until the song slowly drifted away?  Most of us have resisted songs that have come our way and, as we get older with more things to lose, it becomes easier and easier to find the "why nots" and harder to justify making a leap into unknown territory.

Maybe that's why eleven-year-old Amiya Alexander had no problem waking her mother up at 1:00 in the morning saying, "I'm going to need a pink bus."  Not I want but I need.  A demand that led to Amiya's Mobile Dance Academy.

Amiya is a dancer and she wants to help little kids learn to love dance as much as she does.  She sees dance as a fun way to exercise and fight the obesity epidemic.  Her idea was the pink bus ... a traveling dance school that would go to where the kids are: schools, childcare centers, summer camps, churches and private parties and charge half the rate of most dance schools.  Amiya found a lot of help along the way ... from her mother who listened to her business plan and surprised her with a birthday present of a 1998 school bus, painted pink and transformed into the mini dance studio that Amiya sketched out as part of her plan ... to her great-uncle who drives the bus.

But that's what happens to an idea that has passion, energy and a motivation to serve others behind it.  Perhaps the real question behind this story is ... if an eleven-year-old girl can take an idea from concept to reality, why don't we follow our dreams more often?

Amiya wants to attend Harvard Medical School.  I wouldn't bet against that happening.   Here's her press video.

2 comments:

  1. Okay. So that's pretty amazing. I'm a bit speechless. And yep. You're right. If Amiya can do it....

    thanks so much for sharing this!

    L

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  2. Amiya has such poise and confidence. She's her own best promoter. What a /wonderful idea and a great result.

    Inspiring!

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