The theme of my acceptance speech was how bowling was such a positive influence in my life. Since giving my speech, I’ve gotten so many comments from people online who have watched it. (You can watch it too here, if you haven’t yet.) I‘m at the 2hr mark).

As I took time this week to reflect even more on all of the moments that led me to the Hall of Fame, and the full significance of last week, something suddenly struck me . . .

It was all a total manifestation. 

The Hall of Fame. My family who were all there with me. My best friends who are not bowlers but who came to support me.

Everything you have in life you’ve manifested somehow. The relationships you’ve nurtured. The awards bestowed upon you. None of it just happens. It is all a manifestation. And I really felt that last week. 

Here’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about. It was the summer of 1990. I was 10 years old.

I have always loved getting the mail. But what was inside the mailbox that summer afternoon changed me forever.

As I ran to my front yard to get the mail, it seemed like any ordinary mail day. But it wasn’t. In the mailbox was something addressed to me. Someone had sent a 10-year-old mail?

As I excitedly opened the envelope, I wondered what it could be. I figured it was likely one of those highlights magazine or some pre-teen mag. Instead, what I found inside was my very first autographed photo. By one of my favorite bowlers ever. Jeanne Maiden. (Now, “Naccarato”)

I don’t actually remember how it happened. I’m assuming I met her earlier at a Pro-Am at Olympia Lanes and asked for an autograph photo. Maybe she was out of them at the time. But clearly, she promised me one. And she followed through by sending it to me.

I remember staring at her very pretty headshot with the note written out to me personally. I actually remember holding the picture in my hands, really looking at it. I just couldn’t believe that she had taken the time to send it to me.

Until that moment, it had felt almost as if these pros who I admired weren’t actually real. Like they existed in a different dimension. But that photo. That made them real.

That autograph photo changed my life.

In that instant, I also realized that if Jeanne is a real person, that means that she was once a kid too. Who likely had big dreams. Like me. The realness of my idols hit me with that picture.

I began taking the realness of it all to the lanes with me. So proud of receiving that signed headshot from a pro, I began to really dream. My biggest dreams started forming that day.

32 years later, we are both Hall of Famers.

As I was getting inducted into the USBC Hall of Fame, Jeanne “Maiden” was there in the audience, listening to my acceptance speech. She was part of an audience full of many of my childhood inspirations. Wendy McPherson. Leanne Barrette. Robin Romeo. As I looked around, I saw a room full of people who so positively influenced my life and career. Some of these idols even became my Team USA teammates. That still hasn’t really sunk in. 

Jeanne helped me manifest that magical moment. Had she not sent me that autographed photo in the mail, maybe I wouldn’t have believed she was real. And if she wasn’t real, I may not have had something real to aspire to…

So last week was another full-circle moment.

Jeanne’s simple act of sending me an autograph card made such a significant difference in my life. It helped me connect the dots between dream and reality – and possibilities in my own life. That card helped me manifest this Hall of Fame career.

That’s also why I take it so seriously now when somebody emails me for an autograph card. I always take the time because I know how positively it once impacted me. I know the power of it. And I know that maybe what Jeanne was for me, I can be for someone else.