Stephen Lessard

Bass player for Dave Matthews Band.

DMB showed up to his house in a nine person Ford econoline van.

Couple crew members.

Gear etc.

Something like this.

He was seventeen years old.

Im gonna say that again.

He was seventeen years old.

He was playing in three different orchestras.

Three.

He had a full ride to Juilliard.

You know, the music school in New York with an acceptance rate of 6.7%.

"Get your stuff we're leaving."

He ran upstairs, packed a bag, grabbed his bass and gear said goodbye to his mom and family.

And he was gone.

There was no months of mentoring via emails.

There was no praying and hemming and hawing about what to do.

There was no reading of tea leaves, giving of alms or sacrifices waiting on answers.

The son of a bitch grabbed his shit and left.

He was seventeen years old.

His mom may have hesitated at first.

But she didn't fight it.

She relented.

Rather quickly.

Know why?

Cause she knew what was best for her son was to let him follow his dreams.

The rest as they say...

is history.

If Nich doesn't ever get anything else from me I hope he understands this.

You're given chances in life because somebody wants you to have them.

If you see a chance and you're willing to take it, then by all means do so.

Cause if you don't?

Trust me.

Someone else will.

So when you get the chance and you know with unwavering certainty that it's right for you?

Take it.

You'll be glad you did.

If it doesn't work?

You're right back where you were to start with.

So why not?

I'll give him another reason to go out on a limb and take chances when they are presented.

How miserable an existence would it be, to sit around the rest of your life saying, 

"Well, I could have been, done, blah blah blah...fill in the blanks."?

No thanks.

(Think about if Stephen Lessard didn't leave that day, "Man I could have been...Nobody will believe you and nobody will give a shit what you could have done.)

I'd rather fall on my face thousands, no millions of times working for my dream than to sit around living some boring ass wanna be existence I just can't stand the thought of.

I won't ever fucking apologize for it either.

Is that for everybody?

No.

But for some of us?

It's everything.

Here's to the "Whiny ass "Why not me? Oh boo hoo crowd."

I'll tell you why not you.

I'll tell you why you never even got the opportunity to start with.

Cause you wouldn't have taken it.

Or if you would have?

You wouldn't have done what you needed to do to get where your dreams could have taken you.

First time falling on your face you would have caved.

So why would you get such an opportunity?

How deserving of the chance would you really consider yourself?

99.9 % of people will take stability over the uncertain every single time.

Sometimes you gotta risk everything to get what you want out of life.

If you're not willing?

Thats fine.

That's your choice.

But just don't complain when others of us are.

Stephen Lessard's moment came when that van pulled up to his door.

He didn't hesitate.

He didn't waiver.

He didn't worry about what others thought cause going through life trying to please everyone else is the most certain way for you to end up miserable yourself.

He did what he knew was right.

For him.

He RAN upstairs.

He knew he was on to something special.

My moment came, 

when I walked you to the car for the third time and you put your head on my shoulder.

I knew right then, this is it.

This is what I've been waiting for my whole life.

I'm not going to be without this.

This is my home.

This is my family.

I finally got it right..

I've never looked back on it since and I don't plan on doing so anytime in the future.

Now about those ass cheeks.

Bahahahahahahahahaha

Love you Bambi.