Sometimes we meet our dreams on a road we never expected to take. This was the case for former baseball player Brandon Rembert who, after circumstances that changed everything, still managed to hit a home run of hope:
Florida, USA (16 November 2023) — After always having had the hope of playing professional baseball, Brandon Rembert (25) felt he was right at the cusp of his dreams. As a baseball player who had played for his university for three years, what really stood in between him and the prospect of becoming a professional player then, seemed doable.
“I had a pretty successful college career and felt like a solid last season would catapult me into getting drafted,” he tells Good Things Guy.
But everything changed when a pre-season hamstring injury destroyed his chances of getting drafted. Brandon was faced with the unknown; the lostness of having to say goodbye to a dream that could no longer be his.
Or could it?
Sometimes life has a funny way of re-routing us in exactly the way we need to be redirected. For Brandon, that new path would result in him getting hired to work on the other side of professional baseball.
Although it wasn’t on the field, he was still in the big leagues through his role in the Coaching and Player Development department. This also meant the opportunity to help others in striving toward their dreams, and soon translated into him becoming a Minor League Operations Assistant for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
But, none of this happened without his own willingness to adapt, to accept that there could be new paths for his life, and to find peace in knowing there is only so much anyone can control.
In sharing his story, Brandon wants people to know that there is ‘power in the pivot’.
“Instead of giving up on myself, I learned how to pivot, while still staying on that set-out course. Pivoting doesn’t mean giving up, but just means finding a different way of getting something done.
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“If one is continually taking action to move forward in life, something good is bound to come out of that. In life you have to control the controllable and minimise worrying about what you can’t control. You can control your process and the actions you take on a day-to-day basis. One can certainly influence the outcome, but not always construct what it would ultimately look like.”
In offering advice to others who might feel as though their dreams have been dashed, Brandon shares:
“My best advice would be to give everything you have and be the best version of yourself day in and day out. Put yourself in the best position possible to be able to achieve your dreams and goals. I believe that there is a peace and freedom knowing that you gave everything to the “process”, even if the result isn’t what you wanted it to specifically look like…
“Sometimes in life I feel like we may get discouraged when things don’t happen the way we want it to happen or in the time constraints of when we want it to happen. I am guilty of that myself. When I started to learn and embrace the idea that everything happens for a reason, I began to gain peace when things didn’t always seem like they were going my way.”
He adds:
“I always wanted to play baseball in the Major leagues, but instead now I’m working for a Major League Baseball Organisation, which has been one of the best experiences that I’ve had in my life thus far. I say all of this to say that the pathway to reaching your dreams may not always look like what you imagined it to be, but there should be a contentment in knowing that it will all work out in the end.”
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