[Applause]
blade sir Alan Watts once compared life
to being a dream and I’m gonna present
that idea to you guys right now so I
want you all to take a second to imagine
that when you go to sleep you could
dream any dream then you wanted to dream
and this dream you could live a full
life so 60 70 80 years however long you
want and you have complete control over
what you would dream now obviously you
would experience every pleasure you
would achieve every goal you would
succeed at everything you could possibly
imagine but after a few nights of doing
this
you’d be like wow that was pretty great
but now what so let’s have a different
dream let’s have a dream where
something’s gonna happen to you and
you’re not exactly sure what that
something’s going to be you don’t have
complete control anymore now you would
wake up from that dream being like wow
that was a close shave but every night
you would become more and more daring as
to what you would dream you would take
more Gamble’s you would take more risks
until one day something absolutely
extraordinary and fundamental would
happen you would dream the dream of life
the life that you’re living right now
and this is of the infinite
possibilities of the things you could
have dreamed because you see we live our
lives thinking that we don’t have
control over our destinies but we do
have complete control we are living the
dream of life and all we need to do is
take control we have that power within
us only we believe we don’t you see I
was born with rights past six Emma
hemiplegia cerebral palsy or
neuromuscular disorder that caused
various issues with the right side of my
body specifically the muscles and bones
of the right leg this necessitated a
vast number of surgeries in order to fix
in fact the last of which was in August
of 2015 thankfully the last surgery I’ll
ever have to have
and I mention this because when I tell
this story to people the first response
is well you must hate the hospital after
having been there so many times spending
so much of your life there or compared
to children who are more physically able
than you in school you must have felt
left out you must have been bullied but
I never experienced any of that because
I truly owned up to who I was
I let my circumstances not hurt or
afflict me but rather inspire me you see
going through all these surgeries had
inspired me to become a pediatric
orthopedic surgeon so go into the field
that had such a profound impact on my
life and that’s what I’m talking about
today the benefit of circumstance the
idea that no matter what happens what
circumstance afflicts you use it to your
advantage let it inspire you to reach
new heights of achievement these medical
adventures that I went through weren’t
the only things I’ve struggled with
going up throughout high school I spent
the vast majority of my time in and out
of homeless shelters not really sure
where I was going to be living but I
didn’t let the circumstance stop me and
it’s not to say that it was easy to go
through it’s fairly traumatic for a 14
15 year-old to watch everything get
packed away bed dissembled sleeping on a
mattress on the floor and then randomly
being told one day that we were moving
to a homeless shelter but I didn’t let
it stop me
there were many challenges that came
along with it first of all upon
immediately upon arriving I got food
poisoning witnessed fistfights out in
the hallways and the large long-term
implications were that it severely
affected my study habits I went to a
fairly rigorous high school at the time
and I had a lot of books and materials
getting all that through the security at
the shelter was extremely hard because
security was very tight and beyond that
there was no access to Internet I
ability to connect online which was very
much essential for my school which was
extremely modern and utilize the
internet extensively but what I did was
I changed my study habits I changed my
times of working how I worked where I
worked and during this period of
homelessness this first period it was my
most successful academic year ever I
excelled and I thrived even despite
those conditions in fact I went I took
it one step further I put myself two
years ahead of my peers in math and
science courses by taking virtual school
courses on top of my already heavy
workload after that I transferred to a
different high school and this was
around the time my second period of
homelessness came up there was a gap
period in between but everyone kind of
knew that it was a temporary fix to a
very serious problem so we ended up
becoming homeless again and this was
between 11th and 12th grade I was
getting ready for that final surgery
that I had mentioned previously not only
that but at this high school I had to
take college classes the idea of the
high school was to get our associate’s
degree upon graduating so I had to take
summer classes well actually I did and I
made the voluntary choice I was ahead of
my peers on my college graduation
requirements but I decided to take the
courses anyways but not only that the
courses I wanted were not offered at the
campus that was closest to me so in a
very impulsive decision I decided to
take these classes 20 miles away in
downtown Miami now keep in mind we were
homeless we didn’t have a car really
that could get us to that destination so
I had to take a bus in a train every day
five days a week I woke up at 4:00 in
the morning and didn’t get back in till
11:00 at night most nights and this was
a completely voluntary decision that I
made I didn’t have to take these courses
but I got A’s in all those college
courses not only that but I again took
to further virtual school classes to
fulfill high school graduation
requirements I went into my senior year
of high school thriving despite the
circumstances I was accepted to Colorado
College
full ride scholarship one of nine
students selected as quest bridge match
scholars I graduated from miami-dade
College homestead campus with somewhere
around 80 college credits I had my
associates degree and pre Bachelor of
Arts with highest honors a phenomenal
achievement for a high school student
especially a high school student who is
going through a circumstance that many
people consider the main barrier to
someone being able to thrive
academically and even today I face
challenges still upon arriving at
Colorado College I was still in a very
long process of recovering from the
surgery I had this manifested itself in
me not being able to walk very long
distances thankfully Colorado College is
a fairly small campus so I was able to
get around however it still hurts so
what did I do to resolve that well
during my first semester there were some
nights where I would wake up 4:00 in the
morning and just start walking and just
keep walking until I was strong enough
to basically walk indefinitely and well
what’s the benefit to that circumstance
well I got to walk around I got very
familiar with the campus very quickly
and when from when I left high school I
dropped over 60 pounds because of all
that walking I ended up doing these
stories when I tell them to people they
often reflect back that what I’ve done
is extraordinary and well it kind of is
but at the same time I always say that
my story isn’t all that extraordinary
because everyone has that power because
you have that power to do – to do
extraordinary things you have that power
to Kindle your passions to go forth and
explore new directions and to not let
circumstances dictate your future you
see success
often think of it as there are multiple
points of success around you you’re in
the middle of the room and you’re trying
to get to one of these doorways but
they’re all around you there are
different successes out there for you
over there I see the artist in you over
there I see the scientist and over there
I see the monk I’m not sure which path
you’re gonna go down but whatever path
you end up going down is the right path
for you because you go forward according
to a loving your heart to a
righteousness that’s in you the only
difference is that sometimes the room
that we’re stuck in can be a bit cloudy
there can be some obstacles in the way
but there’s a benefit to the
circumstance that’s that is the point of
what I am saying so imagine now that
you’re you’re walking towards one of
these doorways but all of a sudden you
get turned around and the room is full
of smoke well you can keep moving you
can keep going to that success you will
not be stopped you can keep going but
what do you do you get down on the
ground you get down on your knees you
start crawling you got to get past that
smoke it humbles you it puts you down on
the ground you know how bad things can
get but while you’re crawling towards
your success you know that no matter the
circumstances you can and will achieve
if the room you’re stuck in is full with
hot coals all over the floor you’re
gonna start moving quickly this is not
the time to be moving slowly you’re
learning how to adapt quickly how to
move how to keep moving because you know
if you stop you’ll get burned that is
the benefit of circumstance using your
circumstances to allow you to reach new
heights of achievement not letting it
stop you because we’re gonna only ever
continue to face these circumstances as
we go through life whether it be medical
circumstances such as my cerebral palsy
or economic circumstances such as
dealing with extreme poverty and
homelessness you see success is not a
path that’s foreign to you this path of
reaching our goals of love
of being righteous of being kind all
these things these are not foreign to us
this path that you aspire to walk to be
a successful person is not something
unique to others and not to you know
success is your goal it is your journey
it is your mandate these are the things
that you can and will accomplish in your
life when you walk forward with pureness
and heart knowing that you can and will
accomplish these things last year in
early february I spoke at TEDx youth at
Miami was my first large public speaking
experience I spoke at the Adrienne Arsht
Center in downtown Miami and I
distinctly remember I ended the talk by
saying do not limit yourself know that
no matter the circumstance you can’t
achieve Kindle your passions explore the
possibilities and know that nothing can
but will ever stop you and that holds
true today and it will always ever hold
true in fact it will become a stronger
feeling we need to break the illusion
that we are here on probation that we
are here on suffering that our existence
is somehow a probation no your existence
is absolutely fundamental you are here
to thrive to be happy to succeed and
though it may take an extraordinary
amount of effort as it did take an
extraordinary amount of effort for me I
can I can’t stand up here and say that
it was easy
no there were times where I did not
sleep at all I stayed up all night
working but I knew that my journey was
not simply to just exist no my journey
was to change lives to inspire others
and that’s your journey too that is
everyone’s journey you just have to keep
walking towards that success so remember
no matter what’s going on in the
environment around you you’re in that
room you have the success all around you
there may be smoke around you there may
be coals on the floor it may be windy
there may be fire brimstone it does
matter you can and will reach that
success it may take an extraordinary
amount of effort it may be grueling it
may be painful but you can and will
because we have that driving us to
aspire to greatness we have that driving
us to seek out success because deep down
we all know that success is just around
the corner
[Applause]
blade sir Alan Watts once compared life
to being a dream and I’m gonna present
that idea to you guys right now so I
want you all to take a second to imagine
that when you go to sleep you could
dream any dream then you wanted to dream
and this dream you could live a full
life so 60 70 80 years however long you
want and you have complete control over
what you would dream now obviously you
would experience every pleasure you
would achieve every goal you would
succeed at everything you could possibly
imagine but after a few nights of doing
this
you’d be like wow that was pretty great
but now what so let’s have a different
dream let’s have a dream where
something’s gonna happen to you and
you’re not exactly sure what that
something’s going to be you don’t have
complete control anymore now you would
wake up from that dream being like wow
that was a close shave but every night
you would become more and more daring as
to what you would dream you would take
more Gamble’s you would take more risks
until one day something absolutely
extraordinary and fundamental would
happen you would dream the dream of life
the life that you’re living right now
and this is of the infinite
possibilities of the things you could
have dreamed because you see we live our
lives thinking that we don’t have
control over our destinies but we do
have complete control we are living the
dream of life and all we need to do is
take control we have that power within
us only we believe we don’t you see I
was born with rights past six Emma
hemiplegia cerebral palsy or
neuromuscular disorder that caused
various issues with the right side of my
body specifically the muscles and bones
of the right leg this necessitated a
vast number of surgeries in order to fix
in fact the last of which was in August
of 2015 thankfully the last surgery I’ll
ever have to have
and I mention this because when I tell
this story to people the first response
is well you must hate the hospital after
having been there so many times spending
so much of your life there or compared
to children who are more physically able
than you in school you must have felt
left out you must have been bullied but
I never experienced any of that because
I truly owned up to who I was
I let my circumstances not hurt or
afflict me but rather inspire me you see
going through all these surgeries had
inspired me to become a pediatric
orthopedic surgeon so go into the field
that had such a profound impact on my
life and that’s what I’m talking about
today the benefit of circumstance the
idea that no matter what happens what
circumstance afflicts you use it to your
advantage let it inspire you to reach
new heights of achievement these medical
adventures that I went through weren’t
the only things I’ve struggled with
going up throughout high school I spent
the vast majority of my time in and out
of homeless shelters not really sure
where I was going to be living but I
didn’t let the circumstance stop me and
it’s not to say that it was easy to go
through it’s fairly traumatic for a 14
15 year-old to watch everything get
packed away bed dissembled sleeping on a
mattress on the floor and then randomly
being told one day that we were moving
to a homeless shelter but I didn’t let
it stop me
there were many challenges that came
along with it first of all upon
immediately upon arriving I got food
poisoning witnessed fistfights out in
the hallways and the large long-term
implications were that it severely
affected my study habits I went to a
fairly rigorous high school at the time
and I had a lot of books and materials
getting all that through the security at
the shelter was extremely hard because
security was very tight and beyond that
there was no access to Internet I
ability to connect online which was very
much essential for my school which was
extremely modern and utilize the
internet extensively but what I did was
I changed my study habits I changed my
times of working how I worked where I
worked and during this period of
homelessness this first period it was my
most successful academic year ever I
excelled and I thrived even despite
those conditions in fact I went I took
it one step further I put myself two
years ahead of my peers in math and
science courses by taking virtual school
courses on top of my already heavy
workload after that I transferred to a
different high school and this was
around the time my second period of
homelessness came up there was a gap
period in between but everyone kind of
knew that it was a temporary fix to a
very serious problem so we ended up
becoming homeless again and this was
between 11th and 12th grade I was
getting ready for that final surgery
that I had mentioned previously not only
that but at this high school I had to
take college classes the idea of the
high school was to get our associate’s
degree upon graduating so I had to take
summer classes well actually I did and I
made the voluntary choice I was ahead of
my peers on my college graduation
requirements but I decided to take the
courses anyways but not only that the
courses I wanted were not offered at the
campus that was closest to me so in a
very impulsive decision I decided to
take these classes 20 miles away in
downtown Miami now keep in mind we were
homeless we didn’t have a car really
that could get us to that destination so
I had to take a bus in a train every day
five days a week I woke up at 4:00 in
the morning and didn’t get back in till
11:00 at night most nights and this was
a completely voluntary decision that I
made I didn’t have to take these courses
but I got A’s in all those college
courses not only that but I again took
to further virtual school classes to
fulfill high school graduation
requirements I went into my senior year
of high school thriving despite the
circumstances I was accepted to Colorado
College
full ride scholarship one of nine
students selected as quest bridge match
scholars I graduated from miami-dade
College homestead campus with somewhere
around 80 college credits I had my
associates degree and pre Bachelor of
Arts with highest honors a phenomenal
achievement for a high school student
especially a high school student who is
going through a circumstance that many
people consider the main barrier to
someone being able to thrive
academically and even today I face
challenges still upon arriving at
Colorado College I was still in a very
long process of recovering from the
surgery I had this manifested itself in
me not being able to walk very long
distances thankfully Colorado College is
a fairly small campus so I was able to
get around however it still hurts so
what did I do to resolve that well
during my first semester there were some
nights where I would wake up 4:00 in the
morning and just start walking and just
keep walking until I was strong enough
to basically walk indefinitely and well
what’s the benefit to that circumstance
well I got to walk around I got very
familiar with the campus very quickly
and when from when I left high school I
dropped over 60 pounds because of all
that walking I ended up doing these
stories when I tell them to people they
often reflect back that what I’ve done
is extraordinary and well it kind of is
but at the same time I always say that
my story isn’t all that extraordinary
because everyone has that power because
you have that power to do – to do
extraordinary things you have that power
to Kindle your passions to go forth and
explore new directions and to not let
circumstances dictate your future you
see success
often think of it as there are multiple
points of success around you you’re in
the middle of the room and you’re trying
to get to one of these doorways but
they’re all around you there are
different successes out there for you
over there I see the artist in you over
there I see the scientist and over there
I see the monk I’m not sure which path
you’re gonna go down but whatever path
you end up going down is the right path
for you because you go forward according
to a loving your heart to a
righteousness that’s in you the only
difference is that sometimes the room
that we’re stuck in can be a bit cloudy
there can be some obstacles in the way
but there’s a benefit to the
circumstance that’s that is the point of
what I am saying so imagine now that
you’re you’re walking towards one of
these doorways but all of a sudden you
get turned around and the room is full
of smoke well you can keep moving you
can keep going to that success you will
not be stopped you can keep going but
what do you do you get down on the
ground you get down on your knees you
start crawling you got to get past that
smoke it humbles you it puts you down on
the ground you know how bad things can
get but while you’re crawling towards
your success you know that no matter the
circumstances you can and will achieve
if the room you’re stuck in is full with
hot coals all over the floor you’re
gonna start moving quickly this is not
the time to be moving slowly you’re
learning how to adapt quickly how to
move how to keep moving because you know
if you stop you’ll get burned that is
the benefit of circumstance using your
circumstances to allow you to reach new
heights of achievement not letting it
stop you because we’re gonna only ever
continue to face these circumstances as
we go through life whether it be medical
circumstances such as my cerebral palsy
or economic circumstances such as
dealing with extreme poverty and
homelessness you see success is not a
path that’s foreign to you this path of
reaching our goals of love
of being righteous of being kind all
these things these are not foreign to us
this path that you aspire to walk to be
a successful person is not something
unique to others and not to you know
success is your goal it is your journey
it is your mandate these are the things
that you can and will accomplish in your
life when you walk forward with pureness
and heart knowing that you can and will
accomplish these things last year in
early february I spoke at TEDx youth at
Miami was my first large public speaking
experience I spoke at the Adrienne Arsht
Center in downtown Miami and I
distinctly remember I ended the talk by
saying do not limit yourself know that
no matter the circumstance you can’t
achieve Kindle your passions explore the
possibilities and know that nothing can
but will ever stop you and that holds
true today and it will always ever hold
true in fact it will become a stronger
feeling we need to break the illusion
that we are here on probation that we
are here on suffering that our existence
is somehow a probation no your existence
is absolutely fundamental you are here
to thrive to be happy to succeed and
though it may take an extraordinary
amount of effort as it did take an
extraordinary amount of effort for me I
can I can’t stand up here and say that
it was easy
no there were times where I did not
sleep at all I stayed up all night
working but I knew that my journey was
not simply to just exist no my journey
was to change lives to inspire others
and that’s your journey too that is
everyone’s journey you just have to keep
walking towards that success so remember
no matter what’s going on in the
environment around you you’re in that
room you have the success all around you
there may be smoke around you there may
be coals on the floor it may be windy
there may be fire brimstone it does
matter you can and will reach that
success it may take an extraordinary
amount of effort it may be grueling it
may be painful but you can and will
because we have that driving us to
aspire to greatness we have that driving
us to seek out success because deep down
we all know that success is just around
the corner
[Applause]
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