Latest / Motivation study / These Speeches Will Make You CRY_ - Powerful Motivational Compilation

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These Speeches Will Make You CRY_ - Powerful Motivational Compilation · Motivation study

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: At 23, I was responsible for taking her life.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Never did I think when I was in the 5th, 6th, 7th,
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: 8th grade that at 23 I'd be responsible for taking
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: the life of somebody.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: It was a Friday night, 2009, July 17th. We decided
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: to go to the bar.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: I was 23 now, so I was allowed to go
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: to the bar legally, even though I wasn't supposed to
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: be there because three months prior to this, I had
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: just got a DUI.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: So I had no license and I was on probation.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: My buddies, we were all going to the bar and
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: they said, Nathan, are you driving? I said, oh, no,
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: absolutely not. I don't have a license. I'm on probation.
• 0:52
  Speaker 5: I'm not supposed to be doing it.
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: So what we would do every weekend is after we
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: would go to the bars, we would always, somebody would
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: leave early because the bars closed at three. Somebody would
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: leave early and go sort of bonfire at one of
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: our buddies' houses. So I had drank and consumed a
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: half a fifth of whiskey and 13 shots of tequila.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: I was drunk.
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: A girl named Priscilla Owens, who had just moved from Alabama,
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: She had three weeks previous to moved up to Indiana
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: to Marion. She was from there when she was a kid.
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: She was a little older than all of us. Priscilla
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: shows up and she was going to be my designated driver.
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: She was the one that was supposed to take me
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: to start the fire. She comes to get me. My
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: friend Mike says, Nathan, you're not driving, right?
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: I said, oh no, man, I'm drunk. I'm not driving.
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: She is.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: She's my designated driver. We got this.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: We're going out to TJ's. We're starting the fire. I'll
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: see you in a little bit.
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: Cool.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: We shook up and we're at the door.
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: But in the process of leaving that bar to getting
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: to the car, there's one question that I'm never going
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: to probably ever have answered. And I can't quite put
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: my finger on it. But somehow, when I left that bar,
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: Priscilla gave me her keys. And I remember these next
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: few moments. I remember the atmosphere. I remember what was
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: being said. I remember everything, every part of it. I
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: remember the shorts that I had on. I remember more
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: clearly than anything the next words I heard out of
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: Priscilla's mouth.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: I remember them so clearly.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: Every vowel, every consonant articulated so precisely.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: And it was so clear, as crystal clear as day.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: The next words I heard from Priscilla were simply this.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Tree!
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: Tree!
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: And I woke up in a hospital bed. The paramedics report,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: it said this.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: It said when they arrived on scene, that there was
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: only one person in the vehicle, me.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: And that I hit the tree going anywhere from 60
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: to 63 miles an hour. There was no brakes. I
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: didn't even try to stop.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: And when I hit that tree, that case of beer bottles,
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: that was behind her. catapulted forward at impact. And that
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: woman named Priscilla who didn't have her seatbelt on catapulted
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: forward at impact.
• 3:35
  Speaker 6: And that thing called the windshield in your car and
• 3:39
  Speaker 6: that case of beer bottles met with Priscilla in between.
• 3:44
  Speaker 6: And she slid down to the floorboard and her neck
• 3:48
  Speaker 6: rested on the middle console. So I stayed up all
• 3:52
  Speaker 6: night that night.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: You know what?
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: The paper had read to Lifeline in a serious accident.
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: Took him to Parkview Hospital. Nobody would tell me if
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: she was alive, if she was dead.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: I had no idea. But I knew the.
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: Paper said something that morning. And if she was alive
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: or she passed away, the paper would probably say something
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: the next morning. The paper man shows up at like
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: 4 a.m. He comes driving by. Everything slows down like
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: a movie. He rolls the window, he throws the paper,
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: it hits, boom. I jump up, grab it, I rip
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: open the rubber band, I roll it open, and there's
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: the headline.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: Crash victim dies.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: At 23, I was responsible for taking her life. Never
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: did I think when I was in the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Grade that at 23, I'd be responsible for taking the
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: life of somebody.
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: What happened, though, is the family wanted me to.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Contact them right after that. And I called. And what
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: do you say to that? You know, what do you say?
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: But I called and the family said, Nathan, listen, Priscilla
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: was sober.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: It was her vehicle.
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: We can't put all the blame on you, which I
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: didn't agree with. I was solely to blame. I was
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: the driver. I don't care how drunk I was. It
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: was my fault. But they said, listen, there's no reason
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: for two families to be destroyed. We want you to
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: know that we love you, even though we don't know you.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: We forgive you, even though we don't know you. But
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: do us a favor. Just try to make the world
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: a better place. Try to don't let Priscilla die for nothing.
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: Just make a difference.
• 5:48
  Speaker 6: What I do, my life speaks louder than words because
• 5:52
  Speaker 6: when I begin to change my life, I'm going to
• 5:55
  Speaker 6: learn to make good choices.
• 5:57
  Speaker 7: I'm going to learn to be responsible. I'm going to
• 5:59
  Speaker 7: be dedicated. I'm going to have good characters and morals
• 6:02
  Speaker 7: and values. I'm going to own up when wrong. I'm
• 6:04
  Speaker 7: going to be truthful. I'm going to stand up for
• 6:07
  Speaker 7: what I know is right.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: And I won't let anybody change me.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: And maybe that's not where you're at right now, but
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: you can get there. And these are the attributes of success, man.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: If you want something in life, You got to be
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: willing to do what nobody.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Else has done.
• 6:19
  Speaker 6: If you keep doing the same thing you've always done,
• 6:22
  Speaker 6: it's the definition of insanity.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: If you want to change, you're going to have to
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: be willing to change. Good choices will always have good results.
• 6:34
  Speaker 8: And I was making a lot of bad choices and
• 6:36
  Speaker 8: a lot of bad decisions. And I was basing my value,
• 6:40
  Speaker 8: my worth off your opinions. And I learned something. Listen
• 6:44
  Speaker 8: to me, everybody in here, I want you to understand something.
• 6:47
  Speaker 8: Your value is never based off any.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Of the opinions of anybody in this room.
• 6:52
  Speaker 8: Who cares what anybody thinks or says about you?
• 6:55
  Speaker 6: They are not your merit system. They are not your
• 6:58
  Speaker 6: system of worth. You are who you say you are
• 7:02
  Speaker 6: by your actions.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: But the choices and decisions that we make have consequences.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Good or bad. When I went to prison....
• 7:16
  Speaker 9: At 23, listen, I came from a broken family. I
• 7:19
  Speaker 9: had been labeled and I marked and identified. I had
• 7:21
  Speaker 9: battled hurts and pains and wounds. I had suicidal thoughts
• 7:24
  Speaker 9: and I had battled self-harming. Drugs and alcohol had consumed me.
• 7:27
  Speaker 9: I had lost all dreams and goals. I felt like
• 7:29
  Speaker 9: I had made too many mistakes to change.
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: Listen, I felt like I had every reason to say,
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: you know what, life is too tough and I quit.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: I live with these three principles, and I promise you, man,
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: they will change everything about who you are.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Hard work works. Make good choices. Good things happen.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: And value people.
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: I decided 10 years ago, literally, when this all happened,
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: and I went to prison, I wanted to be, I
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: was like, you know what?
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: I want to make this promise. I want to keep
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: it to this family. I come from a lot of brokenness.
• 8:01
  Speaker 7: I don't know where to start, but what I do
• 8:02
  Speaker 7: know is the importance of the choices that I make.
• 8:05
  Speaker 7: And so literally, I wrote the word, changed the world,
• 8:08
  Speaker 7: and I slapped it.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: On my little prison cell window.
• 8:10
  Speaker 10: And every single day I woke up and I realized,
• 8:15
  Speaker 10: make good choices, great things happen.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Aim small, miss small. Make good choices, great things happen.
• 8:24
  Speaker 10: You see, every choice that I can make, listen, I
• 8:26
  Speaker 10: can't control what you think about me. I can't control
• 8:29
  Speaker 10: your opinion of me. I can't control what you say
• 8:31
  Speaker 10: about me. But I control how I react, respond, and
• 8:34
  Speaker 10: what I do with my life. I'm in control of
• 8:36
  Speaker 10: my life. I don't let external factors control me. I'm
• 8:39
  Speaker 10: in control of my life. Because sometimes life can be tough.
• 8:48
  Speaker 10: Life can be challenging.
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: And sometimes the obstacles in front of you seem like
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: they're too big and it's easier just to lay down.
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: But you know what I remember? I remember when my
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: dad used to look at me when the kids said, listen, Nathan,
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: life is never going to give you anything. But if
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: you make it and if you build it, nobody can
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: take it from you. Because hard work and tenacity and
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: refusing to quit and chasing your dream, you'll get there,
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: I promise you.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Maybe you don't hit the star, but you'll land on
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: the moon.
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: You just don't give up and you go after it
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: and you stop caring about the opinions of people around you.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Stop blaming everybody from your hurts. Take ownership of your life.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Take off your mask. Don't feed the bear. Make good choices.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Be a best friend. Encourage somebody. Be a voice of
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: hope and inspiration. This is your moment.
• 9:41
  Speaker 11: Back in the 70s, I met the finest woman I'd
• 9:44
  Speaker 11: ever met in my life. We're at this dance and
• 9:47
  Speaker 11: I find out her name is Trina Williams from Lompoc, California.
• 9:51
  Speaker 11: And we're all dancing and we're just excited. And I
• 9:55
  Speaker 11: decide in the middle of dancing with her that I
• 9:57
  Speaker 11: would ask her for a phone number She Trina was
• 10:00
  Speaker 11: the first one Trina was the only woman in college
• 10:03
  Speaker 11: who gave me her real telephone number The next day
• 10:07
  Speaker 11: we walked to Baskin and Robbins ice cream parlor we
• 10:11
  Speaker 11: go on a second date and a third date and
• 10:15
  Speaker 11: a fourth date Mm-hmm We drive from Chico to Vallejo
• 10:22
  Speaker 11: so that she could meet my parents. My father meets her,
• 10:25
  Speaker 11: my daddy, my hero. He meets her, pulls me to
• 10:29
  Speaker 11: the side and says, is she psycho? But anyway, we
• 10:33
  Speaker 11: go together for a year, two years, three years, four years.
• 10:36
  Speaker 11: By now, Trina's a senior in college. I'm still a freshman,
• 10:39
  Speaker 11: but I'm working some things out. So now it's time
• 10:44
  Speaker 11: to propose. So I talked to her girlfriends.
• 10:47
  Speaker 12: And it's California, it's in the 70s, so it has
• 10:49
  Speaker 12: to be outside.
• 10:50
  Speaker 11: Have to have a candle and you have to have
• 10:53
  Speaker 11: some chocolate.
• 10:54
  Speaker 12: Listen, I'm from the hood. I had a bottle of
• 10:55
  Speaker 12: Boone's Farm wine. That's what I had.
• 10:59
  Speaker 11: She said yes. That was the key. I married the
• 11:04
  Speaker 11: most beautiful woman I'd ever seen in my life. Y'all
• 11:06
  Speaker 11: ever been to a wedding and even before the wedding starts,
• 11:08
  Speaker 11: you hear this.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: How in the world....
• 11:15
  Speaker 12: And it was coming from my side of the family!
• 11:22
  Speaker 11: We get married, we have a few children, our lives
• 11:26
  Speaker 11: are great. One day, Trina finds a lump in her
• 11:29
  Speaker 11: left breast. Breast cancer. Six years after that diagnosis, me
• 11:36
  Speaker 11: and my two little boys walked up to mommy's casket.
• 11:40
  Speaker 11: And for two years, my heart didn't beat. If it
• 11:43
  Speaker 11: wasn't for my faith in God, I wouldn't be standing
• 11:45
  Speaker 11: here today. If it wasn't for those two little boys,
• 11:48
  Speaker 11: there would have been no reason for which to go on.
• 11:53
  Speaker 11: I was completely lost. That was rock bottom. You know
• 11:59
  Speaker 11: what sustained me? The wisdom of a third grade dropout.
• 12:03
  Speaker 11: The wisdom of a simple cook from California Maritime Academy.
• 12:10
  Speaker 12: We're at the casket.
• 12:11
  Speaker 11: In College Station, Texas. I'd never seen my dad cry.
• 12:16
  Speaker 11: Big strong man. But this time I saw my dad cry.
• 12:18
  Speaker 11: That was his daughter. Trina was his daughter. Not his daughter-in-law.
• 12:22
  Speaker 11: And I'm right behind my father about to see her
• 12:25
  Speaker 11: for the last time on this earth. And my father
• 12:28
  Speaker 11: shared three words with me that changed my life right
• 12:30
  Speaker 11: there at the casket.
• 12:32
  Speaker 12: It would be the last lesson he would ever teach me.
• 12:35
  Speaker 12: He said, son, just stand.
• 12:39
  Speaker 11: I don't think there's anything more profound that I can
• 12:41
  Speaker 11: share with these cadets than these words. You keep standing.
• 12:46
  Speaker 11: You keep standing. No matter how rough the sea, you
• 12:49
  Speaker 11: keep standing. And I'm not talking about just water. You
• 12:52
  Speaker 11: keep standing.
• 12:54
  Speaker 12: No matter what, you don't give up. I learned that
• 12:58
  Speaker 12: lesson from a third grade dropout who was a cook
• 13:01
  Speaker 12: at Cal Maritime. Who said, boy, you keep standing. No
• 13:06
  Speaker 12: matter what.
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: I stood.
• 13:09
  Speaker 12: And a miracle took place. A couple of years later,
• 13:12
  Speaker 12: my heart started to beat again.
• 13:15
  Speaker 11: I'm talking in a group about like this when all
• 13:17
  Speaker 11: of a sudden I spot the finest woman I've ever
• 13:20
  Speaker 11: met in my life again. First thing Janet did after
• 13:27
  Speaker 11: we got married was she adopted those little boys, fulfilling
• 13:31
  Speaker 11: Trina's last wish that her babies not go through life
• 13:33
  Speaker 11: without a mommy. Let me take you back to two
• 13:38
  Speaker 11: days before Trina died. No hair because of chemotherapy, cadets.
• 13:43
  Speaker 11: A tummy pooched out because of a liver no longer working.
• 13:47
  Speaker 11: She weighed about 75 pounds. I'm in the kitchen so
• 13:51
  Speaker 11: I can keep an eye on her in the family room.
• 13:53
  Speaker 11: She's surrounded by pillows. Our then youngest son, Andrew, walks
• 13:57
  Speaker 11: up with a shirt that he wants mommy to fold.
• 14:00
  Speaker 12: And this is what I hear from Trina.
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: Andrew.
• 14:06
  Speaker 12: Mama. not always gonna be there to help you. She
• 14:13
  Speaker 12: was saying goodbye.
• 14:15
  Speaker 11: And I was so moved, I waited for Andrew to
• 14:18
  Speaker 11: leave and I walked over and I sat next to
• 14:20
  Speaker 11: her on the couch. And as clearly as I'm talking
• 14:24
  Speaker 11: to you today, these were some of her last words
• 14:27
  Speaker 11: to me. She looked me in the eye and she said,
• 14:31
  Speaker 11: it doesn't matter to me any longer how long I live.
• 14:35
  Speaker 12: What matters to me most is how I live.
• 14:38
  Speaker 11: Cadets, I've come here with honor, with bells on, to
• 14:42
  Speaker 11: ask y'all one question. A question that I was asked
• 14:46
  Speaker 11: all my life by a third grade dropout.
• 14:49
  Speaker 12: How you living? How you living?
• 14:52
  Speaker 11: Every day, ask yourself that question, how you living? Here's
• 14:56
  Speaker 11: what a cook in the dining center would suggest. Don't
• 15:02
  Speaker 11: judge people. The tendency of a person is to walk
• 15:05
  Speaker 11: away from somebody that's different from them.
• 15:08
  Speaker 12: You stay there and you get to know them. Never judge.
• 15:11
  Speaker 11: Then he dropped Jonathan Swift on me, who said, vision
• 15:14
  Speaker 11: is the ability to see the invisible.
• 15:16
  Speaker 12: Don't judge. Another lesson from this third grade dropout.
• 15:20
  Speaker 11: Son, you'd rather be an hour early than a minute late.
• 15:23
  Speaker 11: My father had the breakfast and lunch shift here at
• 15:25
  Speaker 11: the academy. He had to be at work at five o'clock.
• 15:27
  Speaker 11: We lived on Louisiana Street, 15 minutes away. My mother
• 15:30
  Speaker 11: said for nearly 30 years, my father left the house
• 15:32
  Speaker 11: at 3.45 in the morning. One day she asked him,
• 15:35
  Speaker 11: why daddy? He said, maybe one of my boys will
• 15:39
  Speaker 11: catch me in the act of excellence. I want to
• 15:40
  Speaker 11: share two things with you. Aristotle said, you are what
• 15:43
  Speaker 11: you repeatedly do. Therefore, excellence ought to be a habit,
• 15:47
  Speaker 11: not an act. Don't ever forget that. The other thing
• 15:51
  Speaker 11: I want to share with you is Harvard Business Review,
• 15:52
  Speaker 11: September 2004.
• 15:54
  Speaker 12: The article is titled, Deep Smarts. Here's the thesis.
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: Lecturing.
• 15:59
  Speaker 11: What our universities are based upon is the worst kind
• 16:01
  Speaker 11: of teaching method. That if you want to get the
• 16:03
  Speaker 11: intended message across, model the behavior.
• 16:05
  Speaker 13: My daddy, a third grade dropout, a cook, was modeling
• 16:12
  Speaker 13: excellence for his boys. Combining academic knowledge and old school wisdom,
• 16:19
  Speaker 13: that's what makes an impact.
• 16:22
  Speaker 12: An impact as you go all over the world.
• 16:25
  Speaker 11: You're not interested in making a nice impression, you want
• 16:27
  Speaker 11: to make an impact. Lesson number three, son, make sure
• 16:32
  Speaker 11: your servant's towel is bigger than your ego. I want
• 16:35
  Speaker 11: to remind you cadets of something as you graduate. Ego
• 16:38
  Speaker 11: is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity.
• 16:41
  Speaker 12: Pride is the burden of a foolish person. You'll never
• 16:43
  Speaker 12: be a great shipmate. You'll never be a great executive.
• 16:46
  Speaker 11: You'll never be a great teammate if it's all about you.
• 16:49
  Speaker 11: 12 years ago when Ozzie Smith walked into the Hall
• 16:54
  Speaker 11: of Fame, he said, I've.
• 16:57
  Speaker 12: Always been told how average I can be.
• 17:03
  Speaker 11: Always been criticized about being average, but I want to
• 17:07
  Speaker 11: tell you something.
• 17:09
  Speaker 12: I stand here before you, before all.
• 17:11
  Speaker 11: Of these people, not listening to those words, but telling
• 17:16
  Speaker 11: myself every single.
• 17:18
  Speaker 12: Day to shoot for the stars, to be the best
• 17:21
  Speaker 12: that I can be.
• 17:22
  Speaker 11: Good enough isn't good enough if it can be better,
• 17:25
  Speaker 11: and better isn't good enough if it can be best.
• 17:29
  Speaker 11: It is with great honor that I say all your life,
• 17:33
  Speaker 11: look in those unlikeliest places for wisdom. Enhance your life
• 17:38
  Speaker 11: every day by seeking that wisdom and asking yourself every night,
• 17:44
  Speaker 11: how am I living?
• 17:45
  Speaker 12: May God richly bless y'all. Thank you for having me here.
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: You are not a mistake. You are not an accident.
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: You are here for a reason. I know you're going
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: through some hard times. I know life at times might
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: feel rough or you might feel weird or things might
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: be frustrating, but it's not going to always be like this.
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: Your condition is not your conclusion. I've got to just
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: take maybe five minutes to kind of just unpack my
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: story so that you have an idea of who I
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: am and why I speak with the passion that I
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: speak with. There was a time when I was in
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: a really dark place. You know, my mom had me
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: when she was 16 years old. I grew up without
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: my biological father in my life. I struggled with years
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: for drug and alcohol abuse, and I just found myself
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: in a really, really, really weird and dark place. I
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: had to repeat the seventh grade, and when the eighth
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: grade came around, I'll never forget hearing at a parent-teacher conference,
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: a teacher tell my mom that I was a high
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: school material. And I came to tell you that words
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: are powerful. And when I heard that statement, I remember
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: feeling like, wow, you know, like I am really, really
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: a failure, you know? Like it's one thing to tell
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: a student, hey, okay, you're about to graduate from high school.
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: You're not college material. You're not going to go to
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: an Ivy League. Maybe you should go to a tech school.
• 19:13
  Speaker 5: Like I've heard that, right? Like different people have different paths.
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: But how do you tell... Middle school kids, if they're
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: not ready for high school, like it affected me. And
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: I'll never forget going that next year. And after a
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: series of events, a lot of fighting, a lot of struggling,
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: that school ended up kicking me out. They got all
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: bent out of shape because I cut the electricity off.
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: The next year, I went to another school, got the
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: report card at the end of the year, and because
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: I did not do well and I did not put
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: good in, when I got that final report card, all Fs,
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: one C. And my mom is this tall, but when
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: she gets mad, she turns and the Hulk, you know?
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: And I'm thinking like, this is not gonna be pretty.
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: But I came up with a plan. I said, you
• 19:55
  Speaker 5: know what, I'm gonna change my grades. So I went
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: to the library, I got that white out, I brushed
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: off all the Fs and the Cs, I took a
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: fancy pen and a ruler, and I put those small
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: little dots and lines, and I gave myself all As
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: and two Bs. Then I made a copy of it.
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: And as soon as I got home, I gave it
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: to my mom. She took one glance and was like, boy,
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: where your real report card at? I said, mom, let
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: me explain. She said, no, no, I don't want to
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: hear it.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: I know what happened.
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: I said, you do? She said, yes. You probably lost
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: it how you always lose stuff. And you went to
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: the office and they had to make a copy of
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: theirs on file. I said, yo, yo, you be knowing mama.
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: She's like, I'm know. I'm like, you know everything. She's like,
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: I know. But at the end of that summer, at
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: the end of that summer, when my real report card
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: came in, it was really rough. I'll never forget, like,
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: when I first tricked my mom and she saw it,
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: she was like, I'm so proud of you. She started crying.
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: I even got emotional. I was like, I told you
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: my mama make you proud. She hugging me. I'm hugging her.
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: We got like a breakthrough. And you're probably wondering, like, Jerry,
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: why were you crying? Like, you know, you didn't really
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: earn all A's and two B's. Well, for the first
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: time in a long time, I didn't feel like a failure.
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: Like I actually felt successful, like worthy, like I felt
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: like I was good enough. And so that was a
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: bit of an emotional moment. But it wasn't real because
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: I didn't really earn those grades. Now, when my school
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: sent my report card home and my mom saw it,
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: she was in denial. Uh-uh, my baby made A's and B's.
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: So she called the school. I was like, ooh, hang
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: up the phone, mama. Hang up the phone. And again,
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: she's in tears. But now what was once tears of joy...
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: Now it's tears of sorrow, tears of pain, tears of frustration.
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: And she's trying to figure out, like, I wish my
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: baby would just get it together, and.
• 21:46
  Speaker 12: I was so hurt, but I felt stuck.
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: I was depressed. I was tired. I was struggling. I
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: felt like I was an accident. Like, what's the purpose
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: of life? Like, why am I here? You know, I
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: felt like I couldn't fit in. When it was time
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: to read, I didn't want to read because somebody was
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: going to tease me because I wasn't a good reader.
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: We was always getting into fights. People was bullying me.
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: Then there was a time when I was the bully. Like,
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: I just struggled, and I was like, what's the point
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: of it all? And my mom's a great mom, so
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: she moved me to another school. So now I'm at
• 22:14
  Speaker 5: the school now called Huntsville High. This is my third
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: school for the ninth grade. Now I'm at this new school,
• 22:21
  Speaker 5: and I don't know how to explain it to you,
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: but I got a group of teachers. I felt like
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: they were weird. They were saying stuff like, Jeremy, we
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: believe in you. I'm like me. One teacher was like, oh, yeah,
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: Jeremy Anderson. I taught my man. Ah, this is going
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: to be the best year ever. I'm like, OK. One
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: teacher I had to ask myself, wait a second. Y'all
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: are way too enthusiastic. Did y'all get my transcripts like
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: y'all got the right Jeremy? They was like, yeah, we
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: got the right Jeremy. But you're in a new season now.
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: So you don't have to worry about the past. I
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: was like, yeah, but you do know about last year. Yep.
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: I said, you know, that's my third school. They was like,
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: we're not worried about that again, Jeremy. You're in a
• 23:02
  Speaker 5: new season now. So let's not bring old things into
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: a new season. And they began to speak life to me.
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: They began to encourage me. They began to affirm me.
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: And because I was young and I was immature, I
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: kind of felt like, well, you don't really understand my story.
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: You don't come from where I come from. And I
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: try to build a wall up. But you know what
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: knocked that wall down? It's love. You know what knocked
• 23:23
  Speaker 5: that wall down? It was perseverance. You know what knocked
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: that wall down? It was like unwavering commitment and support.
• 23:30
  Speaker 5: And I realized you can be black, white, purple, blue, green.
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: We need each other. And if you're showing up because
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: you believe in me and you see great things inside me,
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: like maybe, just maybe I could do great things. Your mindset,
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: your belief system is everything. And it is so powerful.
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: And so I came all the way from Atlanta, Georgia
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: to tell you, you are not a mistake. You are
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: not an accident. You are here for a reason. I
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: know you're going through some hard times. I know life
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: at times might feel rough or you might feel weird
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: or things might be frustrating, but it's not going to
• 24:03
  Speaker 5: always be like this. Your condition is not your conclusion.
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: There is so much more that's going to take place.
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: There is so much more power that's inside you. If
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: you make up in your mind, I choose to believe
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: that I can do great things. And I promise you,
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: my young friends, I got to a point in life
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: when I was like, man, I got these teachers. They
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: must really care. Like when you start having teachers that
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: get diagnosed with cancer, but they still show up to school.
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: One of my teachers had arthritis so bad, she couldn't
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: even write on the chalkboard. Other teacher was going through
• 24:31
  Speaker 5: a divorce. Another one that just buried her child. I'm
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: looking at all these teachers that's going through life just
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: like you, just like me, but they kept showing up.
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: So something inside my brain said, maybe I am worth it.
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: Something inside me said, maybe I can do great things.
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: For them to jump through all these hoops and go
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: out of their way to kind of connect with me,
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: for them to make these sacrifices, maybe it is possible
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: for me. It's the same way with you. Sometimes I
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: go back to like being that little boy in the
• 25:04
  Speaker 5: hallway that ever heard that teacher tell my mom that
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: I wasn't high school material. Then I have to remind
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: myself like, no, no, no, no, no. That's not true.
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: I am that. I can do that. I can achieve that.
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: Sometimes I have to remind myself, what am I telling you?
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: Like life can be hard. Life can be rough, but
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: there's something special. And there's something powerful about the human
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: mind and about the human spirit and about the human
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: will when you tell yourself, I won't give up. I
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: won't surrender. I won't quit. I'm going to show up
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: every single day and do the best that I can.
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: And here's the beautiful thing about you. It's why you're
• 25:38
  Speaker 5: going through your process and why you're trying to navigate
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: these waters and why you're still, you know, trying to
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: tweak some stuff within yourself. you still got the power
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: to save somebody else's life. You got the power to
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: speak up for others. You got the power to be
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: the voice of reason for someone who might be on
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: the verge of doing something they shouldn't do. You have
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: the power to brighten somebody's day. Your words are powerful.
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: Your energy is powerful. And so I don't want you
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: all to think that you have to have it all
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: together and everything for you has to be perfect in
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: order for you to be a leader. No, no, no, no, no, no.
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: You can make an impact. You can make a difference.
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: You can save somebody's life right now by you just
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: being unapologetically you and you walking in that calling and
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: you speak life and you affirm and you let others
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: know I see you and I'm with you and I
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: got your back and you're not by yourself and I
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: will hold your hand as you go throughout this journey
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: and even though I'm struggling, I don't mind fighting on
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: behalf of you, and we're going to figure this thing
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: out together. Key word, together. We're going to figure this
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: thing out together. There's something beautiful about us having that
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: mindset of us being together. You know what I'm saying?
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: Not black, white, Asian, Hispanic, not Republican, Democrat, independent, not
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: gay or straight, not like male or female, like us
• 26:59
  Speaker 5: coming together saying, man, we are human. We are here.
• 27:02
  Speaker 5: And I believe that there is more that makes us together.
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: There is more than we have in common than we
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: have that's not in common. And I believe that our
• 27:11
  Speaker 5: differences is what makes us so doggone amazing.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Our differences.
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: Think about that, right? Like there are so many amazing
• 27:24
  Speaker 5: things and there are so many different amazing personalities and
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: there is nobody else on this planet exactly like you.
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: So I believe that we make a decision to say,
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: you know what, we will come together as a people.
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: We will come together as a nation. We will come
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: together as a state. We will come together as a city.
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: We will come together as a district. We will come
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: together as a school. We will come together as a grade.
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: We will come together as a class, and we will
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: value each other. We will speak life to one another,
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: and we will help each other go to that next level.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: Thank you.