[Applause]
at some point in our lives all of us are
going to encounter adversity if you live
long enough everyone encounters
adversity but not everyone gets through
adversity because not everyone is
resilient so what is resilience I grew
up in the big town of Beulah Ville North
Carolina population 2000 if you don’t
know where it is it’s right next to
shrink open if you don’t know where that
is don’t worry no one else does either
but I grew up in the lower-income area
of Beulah Ville the part where everyone
stayed away from unless they’re
traveling to the beach and this part of
Beulah Ville was referred to as color
town and it still is so I grew up
hearing the phrase that nothing good
comes out of beautiful because for a
long time nothing good did come out of
beautiful so as I grew older I wanted to
change that narrative of be Louisville
but I didn’t know how and much like
everyone in here I’m sure I’ve had my
own share of adversity in life starting
with my mother when I was 7 years old my
mother was diagnosed with cancer and
since then her health has been in a
constant decline to the point where she
is no longer able to walk and she can no
longer care for herself so when I got in
high school I had to take on a lot of
the responsibilities that she used to do
cooking and cleaning around the house
laundry all of that and I also had a
part-time job I was also an athlete and
still tried to be an A student so I
burned out very quickly but I still
tried to keep a positive mindset because
that’s just the kind of person that I am
so my senior year of high school I was
on my way to UNC Pembroke on an athletic
scholarship all I had to do was get
through regionals and the state
championship track meet and I also had a
full ride scholarship offer from
gardner-webb University so I know some
of you are wondering how I ended up here
I got to the track meet after ignoring
the doctors ordered orders of bed rest
because I had torn tendons in both of my
knees but I really wanted this and I
really wanted to go to college because
no one in my family had ever been and I
did not want my parents to pay for
anything mainly because they couldn’t
but I didn’t want to have to take out
any loans so like this was like my one
time to really make it out of be
Louisville and so I get to the track
meet and I was in a lot of pain as you
can imagine but I got there and how many
of you know about the field part of
track and field so I was doing shot put
discus but at this particular track meet
I was there for discus and I had to get
105 feet to qualify for the state
championship track meet so I get there
and you know I’m ready even though I’m
in pain like I’m warming up and like I’m
gonna push past the pain like everything
is gonna be fine I’ll get there it’s
raining everything is slippery I was
like no it everything is still going to
be fine and
I I got there and I did it I got the 105
feet that I needed to qualify but it was
on the line the field part of the track
so the coaches and officials spent about
10 minutes debating on whether or not
they were going to count it as in
because it’s technically not supposed to
go outside of the line so if it’s
touching the line is it inside or is it
outside I don’t know but they finally
decided that they weren’t going to count
it and so there goes my chance of an
athletic scholarship and so I was like
ok it’s fine like I’m just going to go
to gardner-webb University on a
full-ride scholarship and so right
before I got ready to go tour
gardner-webb we lost our home just
completely lost our home they gave us 30
days to find somewhere to stay we
couldn’t find anywhere because we
couldn’t afford any place and so we just
kind of had to figure out what to do so
it’s April of my senior year and it’s
time for prom my friends are out
shopping for their prom dresses and
suits and I’m trying to find somewhere
to sleep at night and trying to find a
way it’s a gardner-webb University which
is 4 hours away so that was a really low
moment in my life but I still tried to
stay positive but for whatever reason it
wasn’t working this time and so I came
to ECU and I was very empty I didn’t
really know like what I wanted to do
didn’t really have any type of direction
in life
and I stumbled upon the Center for
leadership and civic engagement
I attended one of their days of service
and I realized that service gave me like
what I was looking for and so I became
really involved with the office and I
started working with people in these
lower-income communities here in
Greenville and I realized that these
people were a lot like me and I loved it
so much so that I made a job out of it
so I’m working with these people and I’m
still realizing that like there’s still
something there that I just couldn’t
quite put my finger on and so not too
long ago I went to see this movie called
girls trip has anyone seen that okay so
in the movie Ryan Pierce who’s played by
Regina Hall has this mantra that she
recites when everything’s like going
crazy she’s like I’m smart I’m strong
and powerful and beautiful and she just
keeps saying it over and over but
nothing is changing around her because
she’s not acknowledging that there’s an
actual problem and so after I watched
that movie I realized what resilience is
not resilience is not pretending that
everything is okay when it’s not
resilience is not trying to cover up and
be your best self kind of like she was
saying this polished version of
ourselves resilience is acknowledging
that there is a problem and bouncing
back from it kind of like Big Sean said
last night I took an L buts and I don’t
bounce back that
that’s what resilience is to me and when
I think of resilience now I think of a
stress ball because no matter how much
pressure you apply to it it will always
return to its original form and I mean
pressure is going to be applied I’ve
accepted that but I know that if I
acknowledge that pressure I can use it
to my advantage and I will return to my
original form hopefully better than I
was before
so I want to challenge you all today to
change the way that you think about
adversity and to see it as an
opportunity rather than an obstacle
thank you
[Applause]
you [Applause]
at some point in our lives all of us are
going to encounter adversity if you live
long enough everyone encounters
adversity but not everyone gets through
adversity because not everyone is
resilient so what is resilience I grew
up in the big town of Beulah Ville North
Carolina population 2000 if you don’t
know where it is it’s right next to
shrink open if you don’t know where that
is don’t worry no one else does either
but I grew up in the lower-income area
of Beulah Ville the part where everyone
stayed away from unless they’re
traveling to the beach and this part of
Beulah Ville was referred to as color
town and it still is so I grew up
hearing the phrase that nothing good
comes out of beautiful because for a
long time nothing good did come out of
beautiful so as I grew older I wanted to
change that narrative of be Louisville
but I didn’t know how and much like
everyone in here I’m sure I’ve had my
own share of adversity in life starting
with my mother when I was 7 years old my
mother was diagnosed with cancer and
since then her health has been in a
constant decline to the point where she
is no longer able to walk and she can no
longer care for herself so when I got in
high school I had to take on a lot of
the responsibilities that she used to do
cooking and cleaning around the house
laundry all of that and I also had a
part-time job I was also an athlete and
still tried to be an A student so I
burned out very quickly but I still
tried to keep a positive mindset because
that’s just the kind of person that I am
so my senior year of high school I was
on my way to UNC Pembroke on an athletic
scholarship all I had to do was get
through regionals and the state
championship track meet and I also had a
full ride scholarship offer from
gardner-webb University so I know some
of you are wondering how I ended up here
I got to the track meet after ignoring
the doctors ordered orders of bed rest
because I had torn tendons in both of my
knees but I really wanted this and I
really wanted to go to college because
no one in my family had ever been and I
did not want my parents to pay for
anything mainly because they couldn’t
but I didn’t want to have to take out
any loans so like this was like my one
time to really make it out of be
Louisville and so I get to the track
meet and I was in a lot of pain as you
can imagine but I got there and how many
of you know about the field part of
track and field so I was doing shot put
discus but at this particular track meet
I was there for discus and I had to get
105 feet to qualify for the state
championship track meet so I get there
and you know I’m ready even though I’m
in pain like I’m warming up and like I’m
gonna push past the pain like everything
is gonna be fine I’ll get there it’s
raining everything is slippery I was
like no it everything is still going to
be fine and
I I got there and I did it I got the 105
feet that I needed to qualify but it was
on the line the field part of the track
so the coaches and officials spent about
10 minutes debating on whether or not
they were going to count it as in
because it’s technically not supposed to
go outside of the line so if it’s
touching the line is it inside or is it
outside I don’t know but they finally
decided that they weren’t going to count
it and so there goes my chance of an
athletic scholarship and so I was like
ok it’s fine like I’m just going to go
to gardner-webb University on a
full-ride scholarship and so right
before I got ready to go tour
gardner-webb we lost our home just
completely lost our home they gave us 30
days to find somewhere to stay we
couldn’t find anywhere because we
couldn’t afford any place and so we just
kind of had to figure out what to do so
it’s April of my senior year and it’s
time for prom my friends are out
shopping for their prom dresses and
suits and I’m trying to find somewhere
to sleep at night and trying to find a
way it’s a gardner-webb University which
is 4 hours away so that was a really low
moment in my life but I still tried to
stay positive but for whatever reason it
wasn’t working this time and so I came
to ECU and I was very empty I didn’t
really know like what I wanted to do
didn’t really have any type of direction
in life
and I stumbled upon the Center for
leadership and civic engagement
I attended one of their days of service
and I realized that service gave me like
what I was looking for and so I became
really involved with the office and I
started working with people in these
lower-income communities here in
Greenville and I realized that these
people were a lot like me and I loved it
so much so that I made a job out of it
so I’m working with these people and I’m
still realizing that like there’s still
something there that I just couldn’t
quite put my finger on and so not too
long ago I went to see this movie called
girls trip has anyone seen that okay so
in the movie Ryan Pierce who’s played by
Regina Hall has this mantra that she
recites when everything’s like going
crazy she’s like I’m smart I’m strong
and powerful and beautiful and she just
keeps saying it over and over but
nothing is changing around her because
she’s not acknowledging that there’s an
actual problem and so after I watched
that movie I realized what resilience is
not resilience is not pretending that
everything is okay when it’s not
resilience is not trying to cover up and
be your best self kind of like she was
saying this polished version of
ourselves resilience is acknowledging
that there is a problem and bouncing
back from it kind of like Big Sean said
last night I took an L buts and I don’t
bounce back that
that’s what resilience is to me and when
I think of resilience now I think of a
stress ball because no matter how much
pressure you apply to it it will always
return to its original form and I mean
pressure is going to be applied I’ve
accepted that but I know that if I
acknowledge that pressure I can use it
to my advantage and I will return to my
original form hopefully better than I
was before
so I want to challenge you all today to
change the way that you think about
adversity and to see it as an
opportunity rather than an obstacle
thank you
[Applause]
you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: