A dream come blue

"It is the hope and dreams that we have that make us great." ~ circa 1999 Paige Kornblue enjoyed fortune cookie insert

Big brothers teach us many things.

In college... mine sure did.

U of M Placekicker Brandon Kornblue & sister (biggest fan) Paige, 1999 Spring Scrimmage

My brother, Brandon Kornblue, taught me how to not only navigate through classes at the University of Michigan but also navigate through Ann Arbor’s best places to eat.

He taught me how to not get a parking ticket with his car.

He showed me that brothers can make your Valentine’s Day special with a note and a rose and it doesn’t just have to be a boyfriend doing so.

He proved that if your brother is on a college sports team then you quickly have dozens of BIG big brothers keeping an eye on you.

SS/DB Tate Schanski, Paige Kornblue, & Kicker Brandon Kornblue

And lastly and most importantly, my brother taught me how to #followyourdreams.

We grew up huge University of Michigan fans because our father attended the U of M.

We traveled to games, we watched games religiously at home and I’m pretty sure we owned just about everything with Michigan written on it.

Brandon’s dream was to kick for Michigan. As a boy, nothing put bigger smiles on his face than Michigan wins and high fives from the Michigan players. Years of soccer led to years of football kicking. And then came full-ride offers from some colleges... but the invited walk-on offer from the University of Michigan was the one he took.

I recently found photos and a little ‘ol fortune cookie quote (who actually keeps these?!) from the week of Michigan’s 1999 spring scrimmage; there wasn't a spring game that year due to injuries.

This was a team that had traveled to National Championship Rose Bowls, Outback Bowls and soon, an Orange Bowl. A team that molded super grads, super dads, NFL greats, the country’s greatest kicking coach (Brandon is the Founder & Owner of Kornblue Kicking) and arguably the greatest quarterback of all time, Tom Brady - who also happened to be my brother’s holder (wait til you hear that game story!). It was a team of successful dreamers and achievers and true blue Michigan men.

Many of them are still following their dreams.

And what’s even better, teaching others how to do the same.