- Oprah said that a mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.

So what happens when your dreams don't become a reality?

Do you give up?

Or do you keep rocking to the beat of your own drum?

This week, we're heading to Alabama to highlight a magical little place in a small downtown.

(upbeat music) (relaxing music) - I've always loved music.

And my dream was always to be a musician.

I always joke with my family like I wanna be a rock star when I grow up.

- Me too.

- I think we all do, you know?

When I got older, I started noticing changes in my health and I didn't know what to make of it.

I must've been 12 or 13 when I would get woken up out of sleep and I just couldn't breathe and my body was just, like, locked up.

(mysterious music) Cortical dysplasia, like, I remember the doctors telling me about it because they said it's more or less a birthmark on your brain.

- Like, how did you handle that as a 12 year old?

I mean, that's middle school.

- It's a tough thing and it, you know, it does wear on you mentally.

I kinda didn't wanna admit there was anything wrong with me.

No one wants to deal with anything when they're trying to date and be cool.

It's hard to explain to a girl at 16 or 17 like, "Hey, by the way, I might fall out at a certain point."

And I'm like I'm not going to tell anyone, I'm gonna be normal and the next thing I know, I'm on stage playing a show and I'm having a seizure behind a drum set.

And then everyone's wondering, what's happening.

(guitar strumming) - Talk about that advocacy part of your story of you being able to have this space now that's, it's helping children who are living with neurological disorders and autism.

- We're incredibly blessed because we get to work number one, in music and play music with kids who need someone to show them how to build a skill that they would never learn anywhere else.

And if you can take the time to invest in folks like that, it just changes their world.

- For these children with autism, they're dealing with things like depression, anxiety, that just kinda comes along with having a deficit in terms of communication.

And it's not just him making music with them it's eye-hand coordination, it's motor skills, it's memory and executive functioning, it's social skills and just all around life skills that I see him incorporate.

- Should it be this rock and roll?

Or should it be this rock and roll?

(guitar strumming) - The first one.

A one.

A two.

A three.

(indistinct vocals) (Drumsticks clicking) - I love to teach the fundamentals of music, I love to do rhythm, I love to do all that, but the icing on the cake is when you put it all together.

You get to combine the drums with the guitar and you get to just have fun and jam.

- What is it about playing the music that you get enjoyment from?

- We all got talents.

Bakers could bake.

Teachers can teach, and you can find that talent by the ones around you.

- And you're very wise.

- Yes, I am.

(Tamlin laughs) - Connor didn't speak until age five.

The day we walked into Mark's office, I think I probably had more demands out of Mark than I ever should have.

(laughs) - Connor, can you show me how to play the drums?

- Oh, it's easy.

First, you can do like this way.

- I want Connor to be as happy as he can be in life.

I want him to not feel the depressing side of some of the things he deals with.

Mark is like almost a weekly therapist for Connor.

He goes in there many of times come out and said, "he taught me about some things that was deep on him and we just jammed it out."

And that's the kind of thing that Connor needs.

You know, that's what any kid needs.

- You know, going through all these neurological issues, I didn't get to live out the dream of being a rockstar on stage, but I get to be a rock star in a totally different capacity.

You know, we always have dreams and be like, "this is how it's going to go.

This is what I'm going to do" It doesn't necessarily work in the way you think all the time, but it can work out in a phenomenal way.

It really can - You know, we sit on the outskirts of Birmingham and even in a city the size of the Birmingham area, people are still traveling out here to the music room because of what they do.

(positive music) - PSA Crew.

Positive.

Sarcastic - [Child] Animation.

(sheet flipping) - People are complex.

Our furry friend over here will be a much simpler example.

Anybody care to classify the teacher's pet?

- [Child] Clearly it has the whiskers of a cat.

- [Narrator] And the snout of a dog.

- Actually in the wild kingdom.

Some scientific classifications are not that clear and defined.

(animal gnarling) - Little, whatever it is is hungry.

- You like last night's pepperoni pizza.

Don't you, little buddy.

(animal meows and barks) (burping) It sounds like our friend here is clearly- - The only thing that is clear is that pepperoni gives it gas.

- Like all of us, (farting) I guess the lesson here is- - Don't feed teach pepperoni after midnight.

- Perhaps, and also, that you can't judge a book by its cover.

And sometimes after you read the whole thing, you still don't really have any idea what the book is about.

(animal coughing) (upbeat music) - Hi, my name is James.

And my favorite self-care technique is definitely listening to music.

I take out my headphones and I placed them in my ear and all the worries go away.

I can listen to these lyrics and no matter if I'm stressed out about school or my family listening to music is my favorite self-care technique.

I would definitely recommend it, if you're having stress or anxiety.

(upbeat music) - You just heard from James from our Hope Giver Squad about music, putting some of his worries away.

But if you're looking for some more self-care techniques, head over to our website, for some more resources, we got you.

Today's Youth Across America takes us to Colorado Springs, Colorado.

(techno music) - I woke up and I couldn't move, but I didn't let that stop me.

(somber music) My name is Christian Through, I am 16 and this is my story.

December 26th, 2019.

I was 13 years old.

I woke up and I couldn't move.

I had to be rushed off to a hospital to get five screws in my hip and that was emergency surgery.

And I couldn't walk for six or seven months.

I wasn't going to school at the time because of winter break.

And I started to think, you know, what can I do?

I really like art.

So I had a bucket of mini figure parts and pieces.

You know, the little mini figure parts.

I took some paint and paint brushes, and I just started going at it.

I made comic book characters, musicians, video games, movies, everything you could think of.

I started painting and making and I had so many of them by the time I could walk that I didn't know what to do with them.

So I asked my mom, I was like, "Hey, you have your own business.

So could you help me start selling these?"

And she hooked me up and got me an event.

And that's when it all went from there.

Three years, I worked in and worked for three years just to get where I am because of my injury.

It changed who I was and then COVID hit.

I didn't know what to think.

I didn't know what to do.

I was speechless.

I didn't even know if I could adapt to all of it, but I did.

I made an online store.

I persevered, I had hope.

I was resilient and I fixed something broken.

(jazz music) - I love what Mark's doing with the music room.

And, you know, in medical school, I learned about cortical dysplasia and the fact that you can have epilepsy and seizures and you don't necessarily know when they're coming.

And, and often they're stress induced.

It's hard enough dealing with stress, but then not knowing if you could actually have a seizure during the times of low stress.

That's, it's tough.

And what I love about this story is that again, sublimation.

Feeling the pain associated with having some challenges and turning it into a corrective experience where you're helping other people and you're using the language of music to do it.

Music creates state changes within us, and you can utilize music as mechanism of language or some other way of communicating with somebody when you want to, you know, try to get something out of them or initiate a conversation.

And again, I am such a big believer in the metaphor of creativity to be able to connect because you develop something called cognitive flexibility, and you're able to have neurons speak to each other that weren't speaking to each other otherwise.

We all have this desire to be a rockstar.

I mean, every guy I think does, and in his own way, he's doing it.

And they're not just talking about music.

They're not just connecting over music.

They're connecting over challenges.

They're connecting over depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, you know what it's like to feel vulnerable in the world.

So I love this episode, but the rockstar in me loves it.

The creative in me loves it.

The doctor in me loves it.

It was a great episode.

- [Announcer] Do you know someone we should highlight, send us your suggestions and keep holdin' on.

(rockstar music) - Are you rocking to the beat of your own drum?

If so, we want to hear your story.

Submissions open out for our 2022 Youth Across America Hope Film challenge in December.

We want to feature your story next season.

In the loft today, performing Q & A off their self-titled album.

This is New Madrid.

(guitar strums) ♪ Real from the message of yesterday ♪ ♪ Testing my eyes out ♪ ♪ Swirling, these waves of perfection ♪ ♪ Feelin' just fine now ♪ ♪ The answer ♪ ♪ You're looking for ♪ ♪ The one the question pulls for ♪ ♪ You know it's a little ♪ beside the point ♪ ♪ But you go on with anyway now ♪ ♪ Don't make this sin ♪ ♪ That you thought it use to ♪ ♪ Your layers inside of ♪ what your two day poster ♪ ♪ I don't know already ♪ ♪ Have the answers ♪ ♪ If the slow dreaming ♪ didn't breathing dance ♪ ♪ Do you want me ♪ ♪ Ask the question or the answer ♪ ♪ Do you want to ask the question ♪ ♪ Or the answer ♪ ♪ Do you want to ask the question ♪ ♪ Or the answer ♪ ♪ Do you want to ask the question ♪ ♪ Or the answer ♪ (guitar strumming)