I Dream with My Eyes Open.

hello

i’m cj jones and i dream

with my eyes open

i have big dreams my big dreams

have included me wanting to become a

producer

a director a writer an actor a musician

playing the bongo drums and becoming a

motivational speaker to inspire people

all over from all diverse walks of life

to share my passion it all started

when i was five years old i used to

watch my brother perform tap dance

on a riverboat on the mississippi river

and people

would throw money into a hat and i saw

that and i was like wow

i saw people laughing and enjoying his

act and so i took that and developed my

own acts playing the bongo drums and

telling stories through non-verbal

communication

like pretending i was a cowboy riding on

a horse

and people would laugh and throw money

into my hat and that’s when it hit me

i saw all these dreams of the many

things i could do

and i would watch tv and there was no

captioning

and i would watch tv without the

captioning and would become fascinated

by the action

and sometimes i would ask my brother to

interpret what was going on

and then i went to the school for the

deaf and i got to perform

it was a good school and i got to play

football

and by incorporating all this i became a

successful leader

upon graduation from high school i went

off to college

where i continued my education in

computers and in theater

and when i graduated from college i

joined the national theater of the deaf

where i got to perform and travel all

over the world

wow that was such an incredibly rich

experience for me

i then arrived in hollywood where i was

ready to go and show my polished talent

and to grow from there

but i was denied opportunity it was hard

to find work i had doors slammed in my

face and i felt frustrated

i thought wow because of the color of my

skin plus being deaf hollywood was like

it’s too hard we don’t know what to do

and i was thinking well what about

looking at me as an actor so i decided

to take my show on a one-man show around

the world and i traveled and performed

in very different venues

all over from all different ages from

kindergarten to

high school up to college everyone

laughed and 90 percent of the audience

that attended were hearing the audience

would watch in awe and they became

inspired i gave them my material through

performing through my humor

and my passion and motivation and they

saw how one can become successful

it doesn’t matter if you’re deaf or

disabled or being a person of color

that has nothing to do with it what’s

most important is what’s in your heart

what is in your passion what are your

dreams in becoming successful

that was the driving force and that’s

how i continued and went on for many

years

and one day i found there were auditions

for children of a lesser god

on broadway it never happened and then i

got a role

in the show to travel and go on the road

and found out later there were concerns

for me traveling and

being the only black and hard of hearing

because i can speak

actor going on tour

but i proved them wrong the talent i had

really made a difference there were

critics

articles after articles praising the

work i’ve done

in the show as an actor that’s when the

producers realize

this has nothing to do with color it has

nothing to do with being deaf it has

everything to do with talent i brought

my pride

and proven success back to hollywood

again and had doors slammed in my face

until one day i got called to an

audition for a role in the film baby

driver i auditioned and got the role

because they wanted to find an authentic

deaf black role

with authenticity which is what they

were looking for

the producer had a hard time to convince

the director to cast a hearing actor in

the role of a deaf character

edgar wright who was an amazing director

told the producers no

i want an authentic actor for the role

and they went back and forth

on this and i was casted i arrived on

set

and i proved all the producers wrong in

that i was truly an

excellent actor on set and i’m here to

say to you now

and to announce that it is my talent

that counts and

all were blown away and just fell in

love with me

and they forgot that i was black forgot

that i was deaf

they saw my skills and talent which was

the first thing they saw

and that was the important thing that

they learned that’s how

the world learns from each other

by being willing to accept differences

and then i got to work with james

cameron

wow it was truly amazing i worked on the

set of avatar

i was an actor and creator of the navi

sign language

i got to be so creative that the

experience really made me grow

and prove that anything is possible

now i’d like to go back to my mom at

that time she was 94 years old

and she was near to when she was going

to pass

she only had a month left the movie

baby driver was finally released on the

big screen my entire family and i

brought my mother to see me

on the big screen she sat next to me in

the movie theater

and while watching she did end up

falling asleep

because as you know her health was

failing

but then i nudged and woke my mother up

so she could see me my mother’s face

lit up and she turned to me and said you

look so old and i replied

no mom i was performing in an actor’s

role where my character was old and they

made me up to look that way

she then responded wow i was so

beautiful i gave my mother the dream of

seeing her son on the big screen

her dream came true and she got to see

me as a successful actor

that was such a beautiful gift for my

mom she got to see

that anything is possible she was so

proud

then after the movie finished and we

were leaving the movie theater

all these folks came up to me telling me

what a great job i did

and was asking me for my autograph and

while i was signing

those autographs my mother was sitting

there beaming

i was so proud i cried wow

all that hard work having the right

attitude the right loving the passion

the motivation that i gave to the world

over and over and over again was now

coming back to me tenfold

and that was the vision i saw i saw that

dream with my eyes open

two weeks later my mother passed away

and to this day i continue with my

passion and my motivation

i move on now i’ve established my own

company

sign world studios and sign light a

non-profit organization

in which we can invite and train and

introduce below

and above the line talon into the

entertainment industry

where we can make movies tell our

stories stories in sign language

stories about our rich history and have

both

deaf and hearing folks work together and

bringing these into the internet

or into streaming companies all over

from netflix to hulu

to amazon everywhere my dream is to

provide

opportunities passion is the key to

success passion is the right

to plant seeds of success in all areas

we have dreams you all have dreams

every one of you has dreams all you have

to do is keep your eyes wide open

and do it and now what are you going to

do about this

i want to present you with this quote in

question

and ask you this what do you

see when you dream

with your eyes open

meet me halfway and let’s work together

to make your dream come true

anything is possible anything

just do it work hard and it’ll pay off

i know this from my own experiences i

saw this

with my dream with my eyes open

thank you