In an instant, his entire world came crashing down and his dream was crushed.
It was too much to take for him. He had to get out and let out his pain and anger.
Just a couple of minutes back, he was at the back of an old yellow Volkswagen van with his little sister and uncle while his step dad and mom were at the front.
His little sister was testing him with an eye test pamphlet and declared, 'Mom, Dwayne's got 20/20 vision.'
Her mom replies, 'I bet he does.'
Then his sister pulls out the color blindness test pamphlet and asks him to identify the letter inside the circle.
He looks confused and his sister clarifies, 'No, no, no- inside the circle.'
He shakes his head almost wondering if she was pulling his leg.
His sister tells him, 'It's an A. can't you see it? right there.'
He quickly takes the pamphlet from her and takes a close look at it.
His uncle looks at him with slight concern and says, 'It's bright green.'
He still isn't able to recognize the letter and his uncle knew at that point it was bad news.
He quickly writes, 'What' in his little notepad and shows it to his uncle.
His uncle gently tells him, 'Dwayne, I think you might be colorblind.'
He pauses for a second trying to make sense of what it means and holds up the notepad again.
His uncle hesitates and thinks before he delivers the shocking news, 'You can't fly jets if you are colorblind.'
Realizing his dream of becoming a fighter pilot was essentially over, Dwayne has an intense meltdown.
He gets out of the van and runs downhill yelling, 'Fuccccccccccccck' before he gets down on his knees, face to the ground and sobs his heart out.
Later in the movie, when Dwayne has a conversation with his uncle Frank, he declares,
"You know what? Fuck beauty contests.
Life is one fucking beauty contest after another. School, then college, then work... Fuck that.
And fuck the Air Force Academy. If I want to fly, I'll find a way to fly. You do what you love, and fuck the rest."
In the movie, we never come to know if Dwayne was able to fly but the core of his message was that he doesn't need people, society or institutions telling him what he can and cannot do and that he would figure out a way to do what he loves and achieve his dreams.
Marie Forleo's book 'Everything is Figureoutable' zeroes in on this mindset and builds upon it.
'Everything is Figureoutable' is a brilliant book of simple wisdom and common sense, "but therein, as the Bard would tell us, lies the rub."
I have already written a blog post on why we as humans tend to overlook, ignore and dismiss simplicity.
Marie's wisdom on cultivating the 'figureoutable' mindset is a simple practice but NOT an easy one and too often we mistake one for the other.
Marie reinforces the figureoutable mindset in her book,
"It's a mindset to help you solve meaningful problems, learn new skills, and find ways to help and contribute to others. Once adopted, this attitude will make you virtually unstoppable.
Not unstoppable in the sense that everything will always go your way, because it won't.
And not unstoppable in that you'll never get disappointed, face rejection, suffer defeat, or find yourself in extraordinarily challenging situations, because you definitely will.
But unstoppable in the most profound sense. Meaning that nothing - no thing, no person, no fear, no limitation, no circumstance- will ever again have the power to hold you back."
I thought it would be fitting to end this blog post on a cheerful note.
Enjoy the Little Miss Sunshine dance with Dwayne's fabulous hip thrusting dance moves starting at 1:22.