[Music]
I would feel very unaccomplished if at
the end of today at least one person
doesn’t leave this room changed the fact
that the matter is I wasn’t supposed to
be here today when I apply for the
competition on the day of I went and I
was told that I wasn’t able to speak but
even on that moment I just wanted to put
my message out there because at the end
of the day that’s all that really
matters to me is to have this message to
be heard so now as I start I would like
everybody just please close your eyes I
want you to think about the person that
you are who is that person why do you
hide the person that you truly are are
you ashamed of it and if so do you try
to enforce self change upon others when
you’re unwilling to do the same yourself
I want you to now open your eyes so my
name is Kofi I’m a freshman here at BC
and I’m originally born and raised in
Ghana and this is my first year on
campus and I lived on the MLE floor now
when I came into Emily fou I was so
ecstatic because when I came on BC
everybody that I met didn’t look
anywhere like myself or the people that
I was surrounded way back home I was so
happy to be in the floor filled with
people from all races and from people
that from all types of cultures I
thought that by being on this floor that
I could be my true self
and that others would have no shame
being who they were as well but when I
got on this floor I was completely
shocked the thing is people that lived
on my Emily floor rather than being the
people and and being their true selves
will rather be everything but that I
felt like they were ashamed of their
background ashamed of
they came from and ashamed of the fact
that 99.9% of the students that come to
the school do not look like them at all
so I decided to go into my classrooms
and do the same thing and I quickly
realized that as a as a minority in most
of my see some classes that I too was
ashamed of where I came from the truth
of the matter was I was scared and
afraid afraid of the disgusted look that
people would give me if I try to give
him a glimpse of my unprivileged
background I was afraid of what people
would think of me when I would try to
explain to them my low income schools
back home or the many nice that my
parents worked to put food on the table
for me
oftentimes in my classes I would
casually hear students talk about the
exotic vacations especially during
spring break and talk about their lavish
but the truth of the matter was they
were just as afraid they were afraid to
take that step to break that barrier to
get to know me they were afraid for just
one minute to picture themselves in my
shoes it’s a comfortable come form and
be in the same position is dumb they
were afraid of them and because they
were afraid they didn’t have the courage
to talk to me how many of you here today
are afraid to talk to the person next to
see for me acceptance is everything it’s
absolutely mandatory in order for us to
become one I have to be able to
understand the person next to me where
they come from but I said that they live
so I just want to take our tell a story
of our back home and Ghanim I went to
the shop and there was this guy he was
explaining to me about about about a rug
so basically when rug makers make a rug
there’s a certain part of the drug that
has intentional mistakes and that part
is called a humility square but as a
young kid looking at just rug did the
guy had presented to me I was like wow
that’s amazing
in my eyes that rug had attained
perfection but it wasn’t until the rug
maker came to me and explained to me
that actually I made some mistakes on
this rug that I began to see the
imperfection that the drug had see if I
looked at the rug through the eyes of
the humility square I would see nothing
but the mistakes that the rug holds this
is how if I look at someone just based
on their flaws that’s all that I would
see but if I look at by looking at the
person as a collective it forced us to
take account the flaws the strengths and
the excellence embedded in that rug just
like the excellence embedded in each
agent each and every one of us see when
we take that step forward and we talk to
one another that’s when we truly begin
to realize the elegance in our humanity
so like I said when I came on BC I never
felt like BC owes a hole through not
until I joined a group called sexual
chocolate so most of people out there
they see us on stage performing anything
that’s all that there is to us but the
matter of fact is there’s more than that
to it
I was never able to confine with anybody
in my community until I joined sexual
chocolate and one of the best moments
and the group was when I was hanging out
with my friends Jake he’s gonna cry
right there and we was at the librarian
was late night and I was explained to
Jake the difficulties I was facing on
campus I found myself opening up to
somebody that looked completely
different for me I was vulnerable and I
was okay with that and in the midst of
my vulnerability Jay told me about his
background where he was from and I got
to know the hard-working that Jake truly
was but it wasn’t until I decided to
speak to him that I noticed that see
there are several topics on this campus
that I rarely talked about such as
racism sexual assault and in all those
issues we talked about him in a sexual
chocolate they made me feel that it was
okay to not feel at home that it was
okay to not be perfect that it was okay
to still be figuring things out and to
this day we’re joining the group was one
of the best things that happens to me I
want to end off with a quote one of my
favorite quote and I’ll just be happy if
we could all just be it together
our deepest fear it’s not that we are
inadequate our deepest fear is that we
are powerful beyond measure it is our
light not our darkness that frightens as
most as we are liberated from our own
fear our presence automatically
liberates others the reason why I didn’t
want to say this by myself was because
there’s power in unity if we all help
each other sharpen each other’s blades
just think of how much more powerful
would be there would be no black and
white there would be no segregation in
that sense but there only be humanity
the whole point of my message today is
because you never know what that person
that said like she was going through
until you talk to them thank you [Applause]
I would feel very unaccomplished if at
the end of today at least one person
doesn’t leave this room changed the fact
that the matter is I wasn’t supposed to
be here today when I apply for the
competition on the day of I went and I
was told that I wasn’t able to speak but
even on that moment I just wanted to put
my message out there because at the end
of the day that’s all that really
matters to me is to have this message to
be heard so now as I start I would like
everybody just please close your eyes I
want you to think about the person that
you are who is that person why do you
hide the person that you truly are are
you ashamed of it and if so do you try
to enforce self change upon others when
you’re unwilling to do the same yourself
I want you to now open your eyes so my
name is Kofi I’m a freshman here at BC
and I’m originally born and raised in
Ghana and this is my first year on
campus and I lived on the MLE floor now
when I came into Emily fou I was so
ecstatic because when I came on BC
everybody that I met didn’t look
anywhere like myself or the people that
I was surrounded way back home I was so
happy to be in the floor filled with
people from all races and from people
that from all types of cultures I
thought that by being on this floor that
I could be my true self
and that others would have no shame
being who they were as well but when I
got on this floor I was completely
shocked the thing is people that lived
on my Emily floor rather than being the
people and and being their true selves
will rather be everything but that I
felt like they were ashamed of their
background ashamed of
they came from and ashamed of the fact
that 99.9% of the students that come to
the school do not look like them at all
so I decided to go into my classrooms
and do the same thing and I quickly
realized that as a as a minority in most
of my see some classes that I too was
ashamed of where I came from the truth
of the matter was I was scared and
afraid afraid of the disgusted look that
people would give me if I try to give
him a glimpse of my unprivileged
background I was afraid of what people
would think of me when I would try to
explain to them my low income schools
back home or the many nice that my
parents worked to put food on the table
for me
oftentimes in my classes I would
casually hear students talk about the
exotic vacations especially during
spring break and talk about their lavish
but the truth of the matter was they
were just as afraid they were afraid to
take that step to break that barrier to
get to know me they were afraid for just
one minute to picture themselves in my
shoes it’s a comfortable come form and
be in the same position is dumb they
were afraid of them and because they
were afraid they didn’t have the courage
to talk to me how many of you here today
are afraid to talk to the person next to
see for me acceptance is everything it’s
absolutely mandatory in order for us to
become one I have to be able to
understand the person next to me where
they come from but I said that they live
so I just want to take our tell a story
of our back home and Ghanim I went to
the shop and there was this guy he was
explaining to me about about about a rug
so basically when rug makers make a rug
there’s a certain part of the drug that
has intentional mistakes and that part
is called a humility square but as a
young kid looking at just rug did the
guy had presented to me I was like wow
that’s amazing
in my eyes that rug had attained
perfection but it wasn’t until the rug
maker came to me and explained to me
that actually I made some mistakes on
this rug that I began to see the
imperfection that the drug had see if I
looked at the rug through the eyes of
the humility square I would see nothing
but the mistakes that the rug holds this
is how if I look at someone just based
on their flaws that’s all that I would
see but if I look at by looking at the
person as a collective it forced us to
take account the flaws the strengths and
the excellence embedded in that rug just
like the excellence embedded in each
agent each and every one of us see when
we take that step forward and we talk to
one another that’s when we truly begin
to realize the elegance in our humanity
so like I said when I came on BC I never
felt like BC owes a hole through not
until I joined a group called sexual
chocolate so most of people out there
they see us on stage performing anything
that’s all that there is to us but the
matter of fact is there’s more than that
to it
I was never able to confine with anybody
in my community until I joined sexual
chocolate and one of the best moments
and the group was when I was hanging out
with my friends Jake he’s gonna cry
right there and we was at the librarian
was late night and I was explained to
Jake the difficulties I was facing on
campus I found myself opening up to
somebody that looked completely
different for me I was vulnerable and I
was okay with that and in the midst of
my vulnerability Jay told me about his
background where he was from and I got
to know the hard-working that Jake truly
was but it wasn’t until I decided to
speak to him that I noticed that see
there are several topics on this campus
that I rarely talked about such as
racism sexual assault and in all those
issues we talked about him in a sexual
chocolate they made me feel that it was
okay to not feel at home that it was
okay to not be perfect that it was okay
to still be figuring things out and to
this day we’re joining the group was one
of the best things that happens to me I
want to end off with a quote one of my
favorite quote and I’ll just be happy if
we could all just be it together
our deepest fear it’s not that we are
inadequate our deepest fear is that we
are powerful beyond measure it is our
light not our darkness that frightens as
most as we are liberated from our own
fear our presence automatically
liberates others the reason why I didn’t
want to say this by myself was because
there’s power in unity if we all help
each other sharpen each other’s blades
just think of how much more powerful
would be there would be no black and
white there would be no segregation in
that sense but there only be humanity
the whole point of my message today is
because you never know what that person
that said like she was going through
until you talk to them thank you [Applause]
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