Last Thursday night, I went back to my hometown (King George, VA) and gave the keynote address at the graduation for my middle school. I was invited to do so after a friend of my mother's heard about me getting into Stanford. She said that I had done too much since leaving high school not to come in there and try to be a positive influence for the kids going into high school now (her daughter was one of them). I was reluctant to do it at first, but I soon realized that I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't because I'm always talking about how kids seem to be going down the wrong path at alarming rate, so I saw this as my chance to help this group of kids look toward big things in the future.
Surprisingly, I wasn't very nervous, but I was concerned that the kids in the ceremony wouldn't pay attention to a word that I said. It seems that a lot of kids from my hometown don't ever end up doing anything past trying to be a big fish in a small pond so I assumed that they'd see me as a big ol' nerd coming in there talking about education. But, the opposite happened...I had several of the kids and some of their parents came up to me after the ceremony and tell me how much my words meant to them. It was a good feeling, but it made me feel really old. I just uploaded the video to a server last night and I thought you might get a kick out of seeing how I tried to bring some wisdom to the kids. The clip can be found at this link:
It's a huge file (33.5 MB), so you need to be on a high-speed internet connection to watch the video without having to wait forever for it to download...also, make sure you've got the sound turned up because the microphone was busted and it may be hard to hear. The clip starts out with the school's principal reading a bio of me (that guy pronounced my name wrong too *scowl*) and then the last 10 minutes of it is me doing my thing. I feel weird posting this video up here, but I thought it would be cool to do so on the off chance that someone reading this blog would know a young person who could benefit from some of what I said on that stage. I still can't bring myself to watch it because it is weird to see myself on camera, but people told me that I did OK, so I hope it is worth watching.
Have a good time clowning on The Kid (yeah, I know my voice sounds weird on tape...but, rest assured, I really don't sound like that in person) ;-)
Posted by marquis930 at June 15, 2004 11:36 AMCongrats on making your speaking debut. It's nice to see a young black professional reaching out to give back to the community.
Also, congrats and good luck at Stanford. You seem so excited! I hope that it lives up to all of your expectations.
Regards,
Li
Hi there,
I've been reading your posts on the BW forums for a while and just discovered your Blog- and read the whole thing today, becuase it was that good! Congrats on Stanford!! Your posts were informative, yet funny, and I enjoyed reading all of them. Good luck at Stanford, and I'm sure you will love California.
Posted by: dirty_martni at June 28, 2004 11:15 PMHello Marquis,
Congratulations on Stanford! Like many others, I have enjoyed reading your posts. I hope to be joining you next year as a prospective Stanford applicant.
Take care,
Casimir