I would like to talk to you guys about
the failures in everyday life I know
that every day there’s something small
or big that’s gonna knock it out you get
knocked down every single day of your
life it’s how you handle those failures
though that change the way you perceive
things in life everyone’s heard the old
saying a little rain must fall right
well I’m gonna tell you about some of
the rain in my life and to start with
that I need to tell you guys about who I
was in 1997 that handsome young devil
right there is the seventh-grade version
of JJ now I didn’t have a lot of friends
and because I didn’t have a lot of
friends I didn’t have a lot of
self-respect so much so that I spent an
entire year with orange and black rubber
bands on my braces even though it wasn’t
Halloween and I cared so little about
myself I just took whatever shirt I
could find to wear for picture day that
is a Donna Karen of New York t-shirt
that my mother got when she bought some
perfume at least I had the lasers in the
background though that was a cool thing
when I was in seventh grade
also in seventh grade I would come home
every day from school sit by myself
I drank Serge like it was going out of
style and I love the Spice Girls so I
was a real catch during that time I
discovered something I discovered a
personal mantra that has brought me to
Who I am today I’m confident in myself I
like myself I like the people I surround
myself with and the reason I did that is
the reason I found that out is because I
realized every day I get knocked down
and I wasn’t getting back up I was just
staying on the ground all these little
tiny failures were amounting to me not
progressing any further in my life and
that’s when I found my mantra I found my
mantra from a uk-based band called
Chumbawamba and the song tub-thumping
now if you’re not familiar with a song
tub-thumping the chorus goes I get
knocked down I get up again you’re never
gonna keep me down now it’s simple words
it became a number one
for a band that lasted all of about two
seconds but in those words I found a way
that I could start getting back up in my
life and to remind myself that I am the
only person accountable for who I’m
going to be so I figure I got to put
this into motion right I got to figure
out a way to get my new mantra into
action and that action took place in gym
class I would run to gym class so that I
could be in the locker room before
anybody else so I could change before
anyone else had a chance to see me
without my shirt on because I suffered
from moobs man-breasts yeah I still have
a pair now I’m still working on it it’s
just the way that things happen to go
but I didn’t eat well at the time I
didn’t exercise and so that’s what I
ended up with and I hated having people
see me without a shirt on I hated being
teased and it happened every single day
so I got myself together and I grabbed
my mantra and I said what am I gonna do
with my mantra and all of a sudden oh
that makes so much sense I’m gonna start
making fun of myself before everyone
else starts making fun of me and I put
up a shell I put up a little wall of
humor and that humor allowed me to joke
about myself before someone else could I
took the power away from them and that
has helped me with so many other things
in my life that I find myself saying
gosh I like Who I am now I don’t have to
wear a t-shirt when I go in the pool
anymore
I can be who I want to be now when you
get knocked down in life there’s two
types of ways to get knocked down one
way is a fast way one’s a slow way me
getting moobs and being teased and being
a chubby kid is a slow way before I knew
it I was already on the ground and I was
being teased and that that whole ordeal
was something that I’m still working on
today but I’m working on getting back up
now there’s also fast ways that you can
get knocked down and one of the fast
ways you can get knocked down is to look
in the mirror and tell yourself that
you’re not good enough but brother ollie
shares this lyric with
says you might think I’m depressed as
can be but when I look in the mirror I
see sexy ask me and I’m not gonna let
that every single day I’m not gonna let
that pimple knock me down today I’m not
gonna let any of those small things
knock me down I’m gonna keep on going
now another fast knock down this one’s a
little more universal you guys might
enjoy this is the fact that let’s see I
have been rejected by two Katy’s
actually I’m Ashley as a Rebecca and
three Melissa’s two of which we’re on
the same night I spent a lot of my life
being rejected by women and that’s just
the way it goes and I’m sure a lot of
you can empathize with that because
you’ve been rejected as well in those
ways well rejection isn’t such a bad
thing all the time you might think to
yourself oh I’m getting all of these
knows in my life know for this you can’t
do that it’s impossible it’s not going
to happen well just because you’re being
rejected doesn’t mean it’s gonna hurt
yourself
just because you get knocked down
doesn’t mean you can’t get back up again
no one’s gonna keep you down you can’t
allow yourself or other people to keep
you down
once you’re on the ground so for me one
of the big things was learning that
rejection was actually a way I was being
redirected to something else with all
these women I struck out with I was
being redirected towards a different
person I found the love of my life 11
years ago Jill and every single day I’m
thankful from all the rejections I had
before because those rejections allowed
me to find her
today and now you might think a job
promotion that flies out the window is a
rejection well maybe it means that
you’ve got something bigger going on but
the only way you can find that bigger
thing is to pick yourself up and move on
to the next element of your life when
you get knocked down you get up again
nothing is going to ever keep you down
so in my life I’ve had two big knock
downs that were really hard for me to
deal with one of them was slow one of
them was fast the slow one occurred my
senior year of high school by the time I
was a senior in high school
I
so much bigger than my dad he could sit
on my lap and I love my dad a lot of my
humor comes from him I’m definitely the
person I am today because of his
influence on my life and he encouraged
me to get ready to go to college and I
was excited in three weeks before I was
gonna move to Chicago to go to college
we found out that he had tongue and
throat cancer so that was the beginning
of our knock-down you might think that’s
a fast knockdown to find that out but it
wasn’t it was a slow knockdown because
it started off with the diagnosis and
then it spent six months of treatment
and then the Mayo Clinic telling us that
there wasn’t anything left to do and the
time was short by the time we heard that
my family and I all realized that we
were on the ground and we had been
knocked down six months that entire time
it’s tough to think about it’s tough to
talk about and it took a long time for
my family and I to get back up from that
it takes a long time when you have small
knockdowns in your life it takes a
really long time when you lose someone
as influential as a parent luckily my
mom was awesome
and she did everything she could to keep
our family together – one and eventually
we had more smiles than tears we were
laughing at memories and it was alright
to talk about my dad because even though
we missed him we remembered him and we
embraced his memory and so after many
many years we were not knocked down
anymore we got up again because no one
was gonna keep us down so that’s a slow
not down in my life now a fast knock
down that we had would have been a few
months ago when my mother complained
about a headache she said that she had a
bad headache coming on and it was
getting worse and worse and so we drove
her to the hospital when we drove her to
the hospital she stopped making sense
instead of saying I’m in pain she would
say I’m in tree she started complaining
saying I need more knee and eventually
when we got into the ER she was talking
about how she needed to go back to the
house to get and
after school snack ready for my sister
and I who were both full grown adults at
the time she had had a hemorrhagic
stroke and there was blood pooling in
the back of her brain pushing on her
speech Center and she got in immediately
for emergency brain surgery and the
neurologist did all they could but we
lost my mother the shell of her body
stayed around for a little bit but we
had to say goodbye and I never had a
final conversation with her like I was
able to do with my dad since his death
was so prolonged in fact the last thing
I said to my mom was the day before I
said we need to renew our Costco
membership which I do every year in her
honor now losing my mom that fast was
tough and I still have not picked myself
up from that knockdown and I don’t know
if I’m ever going to pick myself up from
that knockdown but darn it I’m gonna
make sure I try because when I get
knocked down I get up again they’re
never gonna keep me down after my
mother’s death we found out the cause
was called an amyloid angiopathy which
is where amyloid proteins build up in
the arteries in your brain and it’s
common that they have small brain bleeds
a lot of people see it with Alzheimer’s
patients or people suffering from
dementia the doctor then told us oh good
news it’s a genetic disorder as well and
you probably are carrying it right now
they had no idea my mom had it when she
went in it was news to us both of my
grandparents suffered from Alzheimer’s
disease and so a lot of the pieces
started coming together in this puzzle a
lot of people ask me are you gonna go
get tested for this and find out if you
have it and my initial answer was
absolutely not when I started prepping
this talk specifically I decided it’s
time that I get tested for this it’s
time I find out what my life is gonna
hold for me and not because I need to
make the next 60 days count but it’s
because I want to make sure that my
house is in order should something like
this happen to me in my life I want to
make sure that I don’t leave anything
unsaid I want to make sure that people
don’t have any regrets and so
two weeks ago I began the process of
getting tested for amyloid angiopathy
and whether or not that affects my life
as far as my health in my body it’s not
going to affect the way I take on life
because I am ready to make every single
day count I am ready to make sure that
if you like cake I want you to try pie
if you want to go left I want you to try
right I want to make sure that when you
get knocked down you get back up again
because no one is going to keep you down
no words no people no places no things
are going to keep you from doing what
you need to do to have a happy healthy
life so when you get knocked down you
get up again no one’s ever going to keep
you down
you
the failures in everyday life I know
that every day there’s something small
or big that’s gonna knock it out you get
knocked down every single day of your
life it’s how you handle those failures
though that change the way you perceive
things in life everyone’s heard the old
saying a little rain must fall right
well I’m gonna tell you about some of
the rain in my life and to start with
that I need to tell you guys about who I
was in 1997 that handsome young devil
right there is the seventh-grade version
of JJ now I didn’t have a lot of friends
and because I didn’t have a lot of
friends I didn’t have a lot of
self-respect so much so that I spent an
entire year with orange and black rubber
bands on my braces even though it wasn’t
Halloween and I cared so little about
myself I just took whatever shirt I
could find to wear for picture day that
is a Donna Karen of New York t-shirt
that my mother got when she bought some
perfume at least I had the lasers in the
background though that was a cool thing
when I was in seventh grade
also in seventh grade I would come home
every day from school sit by myself
I drank Serge like it was going out of
style and I love the Spice Girls so I
was a real catch during that time I
discovered something I discovered a
personal mantra that has brought me to
Who I am today I’m confident in myself I
like myself I like the people I surround
myself with and the reason I did that is
the reason I found that out is because I
realized every day I get knocked down
and I wasn’t getting back up I was just
staying on the ground all these little
tiny failures were amounting to me not
progressing any further in my life and
that’s when I found my mantra I found my
mantra from a uk-based band called
Chumbawamba and the song tub-thumping
now if you’re not familiar with a song
tub-thumping the chorus goes I get
knocked down I get up again you’re never
gonna keep me down now it’s simple words
it became a number one
for a band that lasted all of about two
seconds but in those words I found a way
that I could start getting back up in my
life and to remind myself that I am the
only person accountable for who I’m
going to be so I figure I got to put
this into motion right I got to figure
out a way to get my new mantra into
action and that action took place in gym
class I would run to gym class so that I
could be in the locker room before
anybody else so I could change before
anyone else had a chance to see me
without my shirt on because I suffered
from moobs man-breasts yeah I still have
a pair now I’m still working on it it’s
just the way that things happen to go
but I didn’t eat well at the time I
didn’t exercise and so that’s what I
ended up with and I hated having people
see me without a shirt on I hated being
teased and it happened every single day
so I got myself together and I grabbed
my mantra and I said what am I gonna do
with my mantra and all of a sudden oh
that makes so much sense I’m gonna start
making fun of myself before everyone
else starts making fun of me and I put
up a shell I put up a little wall of
humor and that humor allowed me to joke
about myself before someone else could I
took the power away from them and that
has helped me with so many other things
in my life that I find myself saying
gosh I like Who I am now I don’t have to
wear a t-shirt when I go in the pool
anymore
I can be who I want to be now when you
get knocked down in life there’s two
types of ways to get knocked down one
way is a fast way one’s a slow way me
getting moobs and being teased and being
a chubby kid is a slow way before I knew
it I was already on the ground and I was
being teased and that that whole ordeal
was something that I’m still working on
today but I’m working on getting back up
now there’s also fast ways that you can
get knocked down and one of the fast
ways you can get knocked down is to look
in the mirror and tell yourself that
you’re not good enough but brother ollie
shares this lyric with
says you might think I’m depressed as
can be but when I look in the mirror I
see sexy ask me and I’m not gonna let
that every single day I’m not gonna let
that pimple knock me down today I’m not
gonna let any of those small things
knock me down I’m gonna keep on going
now another fast knock down this one’s a
little more universal you guys might
enjoy this is the fact that let’s see I
have been rejected by two Katy’s
actually I’m Ashley as a Rebecca and
three Melissa’s two of which we’re on
the same night I spent a lot of my life
being rejected by women and that’s just
the way it goes and I’m sure a lot of
you can empathize with that because
you’ve been rejected as well in those
ways well rejection isn’t such a bad
thing all the time you might think to
yourself oh I’m getting all of these
knows in my life know for this you can’t
do that it’s impossible it’s not going
to happen well just because you’re being
rejected doesn’t mean it’s gonna hurt
yourself
just because you get knocked down
doesn’t mean you can’t get back up again
no one’s gonna keep you down you can’t
allow yourself or other people to keep
you down
once you’re on the ground so for me one
of the big things was learning that
rejection was actually a way I was being
redirected to something else with all
these women I struck out with I was
being redirected towards a different
person I found the love of my life 11
years ago Jill and every single day I’m
thankful from all the rejections I had
before because those rejections allowed
me to find her
today and now you might think a job
promotion that flies out the window is a
rejection well maybe it means that
you’ve got something bigger going on but
the only way you can find that bigger
thing is to pick yourself up and move on
to the next element of your life when
you get knocked down you get up again
nothing is going to ever keep you down
so in my life I’ve had two big knock
downs that were really hard for me to
deal with one of them was slow one of
them was fast the slow one occurred my
senior year of high school by the time I
was a senior in high school
I
so much bigger than my dad he could sit
on my lap and I love my dad a lot of my
humor comes from him I’m definitely the
person I am today because of his
influence on my life and he encouraged
me to get ready to go to college and I
was excited in three weeks before I was
gonna move to Chicago to go to college
we found out that he had tongue and
throat cancer so that was the beginning
of our knock-down you might think that’s
a fast knockdown to find that out but it
wasn’t it was a slow knockdown because
it started off with the diagnosis and
then it spent six months of treatment
and then the Mayo Clinic telling us that
there wasn’t anything left to do and the
time was short by the time we heard that
my family and I all realized that we
were on the ground and we had been
knocked down six months that entire time
it’s tough to think about it’s tough to
talk about and it took a long time for
my family and I to get back up from that
it takes a long time when you have small
knockdowns in your life it takes a
really long time when you lose someone
as influential as a parent luckily my
mom was awesome
and she did everything she could to keep
our family together – one and eventually
we had more smiles than tears we were
laughing at memories and it was alright
to talk about my dad because even though
we missed him we remembered him and we
embraced his memory and so after many
many years we were not knocked down
anymore we got up again because no one
was gonna keep us down so that’s a slow
not down in my life now a fast knock
down that we had would have been a few
months ago when my mother complained
about a headache she said that she had a
bad headache coming on and it was
getting worse and worse and so we drove
her to the hospital when we drove her to
the hospital she stopped making sense
instead of saying I’m in pain she would
say I’m in tree she started complaining
saying I need more knee and eventually
when we got into the ER she was talking
about how she needed to go back to the
house to get and
after school snack ready for my sister
and I who were both full grown adults at
the time she had had a hemorrhagic
stroke and there was blood pooling in
the back of her brain pushing on her
speech Center and she got in immediately
for emergency brain surgery and the
neurologist did all they could but we
lost my mother the shell of her body
stayed around for a little bit but we
had to say goodbye and I never had a
final conversation with her like I was
able to do with my dad since his death
was so prolonged in fact the last thing
I said to my mom was the day before I
said we need to renew our Costco
membership which I do every year in her
honor now losing my mom that fast was
tough and I still have not picked myself
up from that knockdown and I don’t know
if I’m ever going to pick myself up from
that knockdown but darn it I’m gonna
make sure I try because when I get
knocked down I get up again they’re
never gonna keep me down after my
mother’s death we found out the cause
was called an amyloid angiopathy which
is where amyloid proteins build up in
the arteries in your brain and it’s
common that they have small brain bleeds
a lot of people see it with Alzheimer’s
patients or people suffering from
dementia the doctor then told us oh good
news it’s a genetic disorder as well and
you probably are carrying it right now
they had no idea my mom had it when she
went in it was news to us both of my
grandparents suffered from Alzheimer’s
disease and so a lot of the pieces
started coming together in this puzzle a
lot of people ask me are you gonna go
get tested for this and find out if you
have it and my initial answer was
absolutely not when I started prepping
this talk specifically I decided it’s
time that I get tested for this it’s
time I find out what my life is gonna
hold for me and not because I need to
make the next 60 days count but it’s
because I want to make sure that my
house is in order should something like
this happen to me in my life I want to
make sure that I don’t leave anything
unsaid I want to make sure that people
don’t have any regrets and so
two weeks ago I began the process of
getting tested for amyloid angiopathy
and whether or not that affects my life
as far as my health in my body it’s not
going to affect the way I take on life
because I am ready to make every single
day count I am ready to make sure that
if you like cake I want you to try pie
if you want to go left I want you to try
right I want to make sure that when you
get knocked down you get back up again
because no one is going to keep you down
no words no people no places no things
are going to keep you from doing what
you need to do to have a happy healthy
life so when you get knocked down you
get up again no one’s ever going to keep
you down
you
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