[Music]
as human beings we all go through very
difficult and painful situations and
sometimes things just happen and these
experiences can leave us feeling raw and
vulnerable and somehow we have gotten
the message that these experiences
should not be shared but hidden and that
vulnerability equals weakness I’m here
today to share with you that from these
experiences we can still live full
meaningful and valuable lives and that
vulnerability and nose experiences can
be used as a source of our own super
power
it wasn’t until a few years ago when my
friend suggested that I write my story
and share it with others since I had
some amazing experiences that was so
unbelievable but were true I initially
was reluctant since I’m a private person
and I simply didn’t think anyone would
believe me plus the last time I shared
my story the only thing people remember
was that I liked gummy bears
however after some time I thought about
it and I took up their advice and I
wrote my story but I did not do it in
the way anyone expected instead of
writing an autobiography I wrote an
opinion pin name of bee Giovanni and
through that I turned myself into a
fictional character and wrote a
fictional novel of my life story this
approach allowed me to create a freedom
to tell my story and also tell those
missing dynamics that others did not
know it also allowed me to get those
experiences out of my head and translate
them into something a bit more real
through written narrative in what could
be called fictional narrative art I
called the novel
Bernice Rath toll from Bernice’s
perspective
now fictional narrative art was
something that I stumbled upon so when I
wrote this I did not write it to be
perfect or wrote it to create a theme I
just wanted it to be a robbery flexion
of my life story so when I translated
this I also created a counter-narrative
to rewrite my story from there the novel
took a life of its own the writing
process is actually fun because
Bernice’s story was so much my story and
created in my image and again I did not
worry about being perfect after writing
a novel I discovered some powerful
takeaways that I did not initially
attend these things were themes seen
from superhero epics such as Batman
Catwoman or even Wonder Woman themes
such as the power of discernment where
we’ve seen superheroes possessing unique
abilities to understand people and
situations that others could not and the
power of vulnerability which every
superhero seems to have in a classic
example which I’m sure some of you know
Superman’s kryptonite
in the power of empathy in particularly
empathy for Humanity where we’ve seen
superheroes faced with saving themselves
or saving humanity and finally my
personal favorite the power of
transformation we’ve seen this play out
numerous times where super heroes live
double lives among humans until called
upon to use it of those abilities to
save humanity
and in some instances we have seen
spider-man living as Peter Parker our
Superman living as Clark Kent conflicted
and ready to leave behind their
abilities and live a normal life or to
remain hidden knowing they’ll never
truly be accepted by the world well
Vernice also had those same struggles
and in trying to make sense of her world
around her her journey also took many
epic turns just like the classic
superheroes journey so what is Bernice’s
story or I should say who is Bernice
well Bernice is a rather interesting
individual she grew up in humble
beginnings with her mother who’s a
social worker and a stepfather who’s a
fisherman she was a music child prodigy
she graduated early from high school and
college and she later became one of the
youngest prosecutors in the nation
investigating complaints of
discrimination and corruption
just like those classic superheroes
desire to fight for justice she also had
that same desire and a desire led her to
apply to a top-secret government
position and she was the perfect
candidate for that position many
agencies sought after her if I had to
describe her she had to be the super
maverick James Bond type of individual
she was bad she was bad life was going
great for her the vetting process was
going very well but wait one day the
process is stalled and her life is
derailed true to the classic superhero
theme the villains moved in and
disrupted her life she no longer found
herself working for the government and
fighting for justice get this she found
herself a target for rogue government
elements desperate to prove her
innocence and find the truth behind all
of this she’s discredited and
unfortunately she’s falsely pegged as
bipolar and paranoid delusional as well
as a terrorists among a well-coordinated
campaign of hate lies and deception
bernice eventually finds the truth but
it’s not what she thinks the truth is
deeply rooted in state secrets that were
later rock the nation and world
that’s Bernice Rath
what a round story right well there’s
this saying that goes life is stranger
than fiction well ladies and gentlemen
in this instance this is so true and
I’ll leave it at that so I’m sure some
of you are wondering how does Bernice
life relate to my life well in all
seriousness my life could be a lifetime
movie maybe near John Grisham movie I
grew up in a small Bayou town in south
Louisiana my mom was a social worker and
my stepdad was a fisherman by age 12 I
was a music child prodigy I graduated
early from high school in college
I later became one of the youngest
people placed in a prosecutorial role at
one time I later became United Nations
delegate for NGO I have accomplished a
lot in my life and I still have more to
accomplish but what many people do not
realize from my personal story is that
success came with lots of hardship and I
mean extreme hardship like me I’m sure
some of you can relate to the hardships
of hate malicious lies spread against
you envy or even jealousy or what about
those times were people in your life who
are close to you are not there for you
or who are not happy for you when good
things happen what about those friends
who have let you down or you find there
are simply not good people and if your
journey is anything like my journey you
may have also experienced threats
against you violence against you been
mistreated and even uses a scapegoat for
other people’s problems and if you’re
wondering like I am when will justice
ever happened for the wrongs committed
against you since in some people’s
perspective justice is fiction I’m
hoping you’re starting to see that by
sharing your story
you are connecting with others since we
all have similar experiences this is the
type of stuff you people talk about
since those in leadership rarely talk
about their struggles or experiences
since they can be viewed as being weak
or vulnerable but I believe by opening
up about our struggles we can connect to
a broader audience and help us to
relieve ourselves of that burden or that
thing that can be used against us
similar to that kryptonite use against
Superman and this is why I decided to
take up my friends advice and write my
story but in fictional narrative art
form while using Bernice as my
mouthpiece to deliver these messages you
see the fictional narrative art process
wasn’t just a writing process for me it
was a healing one a healing process I
learned that healing is not some place
you get to and is done it’s not absolute
it was more about releasing than
perfection and just like those classic
superhero things vulnerabilities and
strengths can coexist
my hope is that sharing my story as
fictional narrative art will help those
who will have similar struggles to stand
in their truth and to move forward in
their lives
dudes happen into their creativity my
hope is also that we use the power of
discernment to better understand
ourselves and how we all connect and
impact one another to also use their
power of vulnerability to rid ourselves
that weakness and vulnerability or equal
because it’s not to also use that power
of empathy to not only have compassion
for others but ourselves
and finally and more importantly to use
that power of transformation to reclaim
our identities and be who we want to be
and eliminate those negative societal
narratives that tend to play it on
in our lives like a record player and I
know that writing your story cannot be
articulated into one word or a few words
for some of you it may be difficult to
write your story because it stirs up all
sorts of emotions and that’s okay just
don’t remain stuck but you may find that
you have a better perspective on who you
are and the people and patterns that
tend to play out in your life and that
you also see the tragedy as well as the
triumph that is and will be possible
knowing your story is knowing your truth
knowing your story is your superpower
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
as human beings we all go through very
difficult and painful situations and
sometimes things just happen and these
experiences can leave us feeling raw and
vulnerable and somehow we have gotten
the message that these experiences
should not be shared but hidden and that
vulnerability equals weakness I’m here
today to share with you that from these
experiences we can still live full
meaningful and valuable lives and that
vulnerability and nose experiences can
be used as a source of our own super
power
it wasn’t until a few years ago when my
friend suggested that I write my story
and share it with others since I had
some amazing experiences that was so
unbelievable but were true I initially
was reluctant since I’m a private person
and I simply didn’t think anyone would
believe me plus the last time I shared
my story the only thing people remember
was that I liked gummy bears
however after some time I thought about
it and I took up their advice and I
wrote my story but I did not do it in
the way anyone expected instead of
writing an autobiography I wrote an
opinion pin name of bee Giovanni and
through that I turned myself into a
fictional character and wrote a
fictional novel of my life story this
approach allowed me to create a freedom
to tell my story and also tell those
missing dynamics that others did not
know it also allowed me to get those
experiences out of my head and translate
them into something a bit more real
through written narrative in what could
be called fictional narrative art I
called the novel
Bernice Rath toll from Bernice’s
perspective
now fictional narrative art was
something that I stumbled upon so when I
wrote this I did not write it to be
perfect or wrote it to create a theme I
just wanted it to be a robbery flexion
of my life story so when I translated
this I also created a counter-narrative
to rewrite my story from there the novel
took a life of its own the writing
process is actually fun because
Bernice’s story was so much my story and
created in my image and again I did not
worry about being perfect after writing
a novel I discovered some powerful
takeaways that I did not initially
attend these things were themes seen
from superhero epics such as Batman
Catwoman or even Wonder Woman themes
such as the power of discernment where
we’ve seen superheroes possessing unique
abilities to understand people and
situations that others could not and the
power of vulnerability which every
superhero seems to have in a classic
example which I’m sure some of you know
Superman’s kryptonite
in the power of empathy in particularly
empathy for Humanity where we’ve seen
superheroes faced with saving themselves
or saving humanity and finally my
personal favorite the power of
transformation we’ve seen this play out
numerous times where super heroes live
double lives among humans until called
upon to use it of those abilities to
save humanity
and in some instances we have seen
spider-man living as Peter Parker our
Superman living as Clark Kent conflicted
and ready to leave behind their
abilities and live a normal life or to
remain hidden knowing they’ll never
truly be accepted by the world well
Vernice also had those same struggles
and in trying to make sense of her world
around her her journey also took many
epic turns just like the classic
superheroes journey so what is Bernice’s
story or I should say who is Bernice
well Bernice is a rather interesting
individual she grew up in humble
beginnings with her mother who’s a
social worker and a stepfather who’s a
fisherman she was a music child prodigy
she graduated early from high school and
college and she later became one of the
youngest prosecutors in the nation
investigating complaints of
discrimination and corruption
just like those classic superheroes
desire to fight for justice she also had
that same desire and a desire led her to
apply to a top-secret government
position and she was the perfect
candidate for that position many
agencies sought after her if I had to
describe her she had to be the super
maverick James Bond type of individual
she was bad she was bad life was going
great for her the vetting process was
going very well but wait one day the
process is stalled and her life is
derailed true to the classic superhero
theme the villains moved in and
disrupted her life she no longer found
herself working for the government and
fighting for justice get this she found
herself a target for rogue government
elements desperate to prove her
innocence and find the truth behind all
of this she’s discredited and
unfortunately she’s falsely pegged as
bipolar and paranoid delusional as well
as a terrorists among a well-coordinated
campaign of hate lies and deception
bernice eventually finds the truth but
it’s not what she thinks the truth is
deeply rooted in state secrets that were
later rock the nation and world
that’s Bernice Rath
what a round story right well there’s
this saying that goes life is stranger
than fiction well ladies and gentlemen
in this instance this is so true and
I’ll leave it at that so I’m sure some
of you are wondering how does Bernice
life relate to my life well in all
seriousness my life could be a lifetime
movie maybe near John Grisham movie I
grew up in a small Bayou town in south
Louisiana my mom was a social worker and
my stepdad was a fisherman by age 12 I
was a music child prodigy I graduated
early from high school in college
I later became one of the youngest
people placed in a prosecutorial role at
one time I later became United Nations
delegate for NGO I have accomplished a
lot in my life and I still have more to
accomplish but what many people do not
realize from my personal story is that
success came with lots of hardship and I
mean extreme hardship like me I’m sure
some of you can relate to the hardships
of hate malicious lies spread against
you envy or even jealousy or what about
those times were people in your life who
are close to you are not there for you
or who are not happy for you when good
things happen what about those friends
who have let you down or you find there
are simply not good people and if your
journey is anything like my journey you
may have also experienced threats
against you violence against you been
mistreated and even uses a scapegoat for
other people’s problems and if you’re
wondering like I am when will justice
ever happened for the wrongs committed
against you since in some people’s
perspective justice is fiction I’m
hoping you’re starting to see that by
sharing your story
you are connecting with others since we
all have similar experiences this is the
type of stuff you people talk about
since those in leadership rarely talk
about their struggles or experiences
since they can be viewed as being weak
or vulnerable but I believe by opening
up about our struggles we can connect to
a broader audience and help us to
relieve ourselves of that burden or that
thing that can be used against us
similar to that kryptonite use against
Superman and this is why I decided to
take up my friends advice and write my
story but in fictional narrative art
form while using Bernice as my
mouthpiece to deliver these messages you
see the fictional narrative art process
wasn’t just a writing process for me it
was a healing one a healing process I
learned that healing is not some place
you get to and is done it’s not absolute
it was more about releasing than
perfection and just like those classic
superhero things vulnerabilities and
strengths can coexist
my hope is that sharing my story as
fictional narrative art will help those
who will have similar struggles to stand
in their truth and to move forward in
their lives
dudes happen into their creativity my
hope is also that we use the power of
discernment to better understand
ourselves and how we all connect and
impact one another to also use their
power of vulnerability to rid ourselves
that weakness and vulnerability or equal
because it’s not to also use that power
of empathy to not only have compassion
for others but ourselves
and finally and more importantly to use
that power of transformation to reclaim
our identities and be who we want to be
and eliminate those negative societal
narratives that tend to play it on
in our lives like a record player and I
know that writing your story cannot be
articulated into one word or a few words
for some of you it may be difficult to
write your story because it stirs up all
sorts of emotions and that’s okay just
don’t remain stuck but you may find that
you have a better perspective on who you
are and the people and patterns that
tend to play out in your life and that
you also see the tragedy as well as the
triumph that is and will be possible
knowing your story is knowing your truth
knowing your story is your superpower
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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