Never let your dreams go away.

“Never let your dreams go away.” Thus spoke Mike Piazza, the legendary catcher whose rise from obscurity to greatness became one of baseball’s most inspiring tales. In these few words lies the enduring heartbeat of human aspiration — a call not merely to dream, but to hold fast to one’s dreams when time and trial conspire to steal them away. For dreams, as Piazza knew, are fragile things: born of hope, nurtured by faith, and tested by hardship. To let them go is to surrender the divine spark that gives meaning to our journey. To keep them, however faintly, is to preserve the flame that guides us through darkness toward destiny.

The origin of this quote springs from Piazza’s own story — one of perseverance, humility, and triumph against the odds. He was not a prodigy, nor a favored son of fortune. Drafted in the sixty-second round — almost as an afterthought — his prospects seemed dim. Yet he carried within him a dream that no statistic could measure. He practiced endlessly, trained relentlessly, and refused to accept the world’s verdict upon his worth. Through the power of that dream, he rose to become one of the greatest hitters in the history of the game, a man whose name is etched among the legends of Cooperstown. Thus, when he counsels, “Never let your dreams go away,” he speaks not as one who idly believes, but as one who has lived the cost and glory of perseverance.

To never let your dreams go away is to cling to the soul’s purpose amid the storms of life. For dreams are not mere fancies; they are the echoes of the divine within us, the whispers of who we were meant to be. Many lose them as they grow older — traded for comfort, dulled by disappointment, or buried beneath duty and fear. Yet those who endure, those who keep their dreams alive through the long seasons of struggle, find that the dream itself begins to sustain them. It becomes a fire in the night, a compass in the fog, a reminder that no obstacle is final unless we accept it as such.

History, too, speaks in harmony with Piazza’s wisdom. Consider Thomas Edison, who after a thousand failed experiments finally brought light into the world. When asked about his failures, he said he had not failed at all, but found “a thousand ways that did not work.” His dream never faded, though the world laughed and doubted. Or recall Helen Keller, who, though blind and deaf, dreamed of touching the world through words — and did. Their lives, like Piazza’s, prove that dreams are not for the fortunate, but for the faithful. The world does not yield easily to those who dream, but it cannot withstand those who refuse to yield.

Piazza’s message also carries a quiet warning: that letting go of one’s dreams is not merely the loss of ambition, but the loss of self. For our dreams are the language through which the heart speaks its truest desires. To abandon them is to silence that voice, to live in the shadow of what might have been. The ancients understood this — the poets, the prophets, the heroes of old. They knew that the soul, when denied its dream, withers long before the body fades. Thus, to keep your dream alive is to remain alive in spirit, no matter what the years may bring.

Yet, to keep a dream is not to clutch it desperately without growth. Piazza’s words invite not stagnation but resilience — the ability to adapt while never abandoning the essence of what we seek. A dream may change its form, but not its truth. The boy who dreams of being a hero may become a teacher who inspires, or a parent who nurtures courage in a child. The dream evolves, but its light endures. The wise soul learns to carry the dream through every season — through youth’s fire and age’s quiet — until it becomes a living legacy.

Let this, then, be the lesson drawn from the wisdom of Mike Piazza: Guard your dreams as you would your soul. Feed them with effort, protect them with patience, and defend them against the slow poison of doubt. Do not measure their worth by how quickly they are fulfilled, but by how faithfully they are pursued. Even in moments of failure, your perseverance sanctifies the dream; even in silence, it speaks through your courage.

For in the end, life’s truest victory is not in reaching every goal, but in never letting the dream go away — in keeping alive the part of you that still believes, still strives, still hopes. For the one who continues to dream, even amid defeat, walks the path of the eternal — and such a one, though mortal in flesh, will never truly die.