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