VHS Homecoming 2012

No, no one invited me to the 2012 Homecoming Dance, however, I was asked to be a guest speaker at the Vale High School Homecoming assembly. 

First of all, I am honored to be here and when I heard your homecoming theme was Super Heroes, my first thought was GENIUS! Then when I was asked to be a guest speaker at your homecoming assembly, I was speechless and honored to be thought of.

My first thought was, “what makes a super hero a SUPERHERO?” There are all kinds of heroes, but SUPER heroes are defined by a unique and different quality. Superman had superhuman abilities that made him different, Spiderman realized at a young age he could climb walls and shoot spider webs from his wrists.

Then I got to thinking about myself, and my differences. I certainly AM different. Thinking back to my high school days when I was 6’2”, uncoordinated and as skinny as a beanpole, I was REALLY different.

I got teased and made-fun of because of my awkward-abnormal height. I was called every name in the book, some were good nicknames, others, not so much. But my parents always told me “you are always going to be tall, so stand up straight and be proud of your height.”

We are all different, and those differences are what make the world go round. Think about it, if we were all the same, we would live in a boring, beige world.

I want you to think about what makes you different? Don’t hide it, master it; like Superheroes do and use it to your advantage. If I had tried to hide my height by shrugging my shoulders and not standing up straight, it wouldn’t have helped me any; it would NOT have taken my height away. So I did what Superheroes do; I learned to take advantage of my difference “my height” and used it to my advantage; I played sports.

I played Volleyball and Basketball here at Vale High School, and I am proud to a Vale Viking Alumni. I was recruited all over the nation and I signed with Oregon State University and received a full-ride scholarship to play basketball there.

During my collegiate years, there were lots of ups and downs and highs and lows. I have a ton of memories with my teammates and we traveled all over the nation playing ball. But what I want to tell you about today is a story that sticks out in my mind whenever I think back on my college experience.

Between my Junior and Senior year at Oregon State, we went through a coaching change. Our current coach was fired and OSU hired LaVonda Wagner, who was an assistant coach from Duke University. If you know anything about basketball, then you know that Duke University is a BIG BASKETBALL school, and we knew we were going to get a great coach with high expectations.

When our new coach joined us, it was spring of my junior year, which was our off-season. Our new coach told us, “We might not be the best team in the country, but we can certainly be the most in-shape team in the country.” So guess what we did? We ran, and ran, and ran, and worked on defense and ran and ran and ran some more. We all joked around that we were now a track team rather than a basketball team, but we were all so excited and happy about our new coach, we did whatever she asked of us.

That spring, Coach had our trainer take us to a local high school where we ran a mile and our trainer logged our times. Little did we know Coach Wagner was tracking our times for a baseline. She then set what our TIME should be the following fall. We each were assigned a personalized mile-time that we needed to achieve the following semester during pre-season.

Now, let me backtrack, when Coach Wager got to OSU, she “trimmed the fat.” She cut all of our walk-on players and made things really difficult so the weaker players quit. When I was assigned the SECOND fastest mile time on our team as the tallest and biggest post player on our team, my perception was that Coach Wagner wanted me to fail. She set my time at a 6 minute and 15 second mile. To give you a reference point, our FASTEST team member, our point-guard, was given a mile time of 5 minutes and 45 seconds. I was SHOCKED that I was only given 30 seconds more than the FASTEST person on our team, and thought I was being set up to fail, so what did I do? I told myself “I was going to do it and prove everyone wrong.”

Now mind you, this was my perception of what my new Coach wanted. This was my personal negative-self-talk. No one told me I couldn’t do it, no one told me they wanted me to fail, this was just my own negativity getting to me. So all summer, I trained as hard as I could with my team. I ran and ran and every time we ran, I kept that “what seemed to be impossible” mile time in my mind.

Then the day came; we all had to run the mile for the first time.

Once the fall semester had started, we, as a team, went to a local high school track every Wednesday morning at 6am, and we would go to this track every Wednesday morning at 6am until EVERYONE made their time. Once you personally made your time, you didn’t have to run anymore, however you still had to be there to support your team members.

So the first day, I ran my hardest, I told myself to put it all out there and ran my heart out. I kept up with my FAST point guard the first 3 laps, I am not sure how I stayed with her, but I did. I told myself not to listen to my body, but to listen to my mind… KEEP RUNNING or rather, sprinting. I thought my legs were going to fall off and I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest. The final lap I fell a little behind my point guard, but I figured I was fine, since I had a whole 30 seconds more than she. As I was approaching the finish line, I wasn’t thinking about anything, except, 6:15. I needed to run the mile in 6 minutes and 15 seconds; I came in at 6:14. I made it! By ONE second, but I made it!

Looking back on my college basketball experience, I don’t remember the score of any certain game. I don’t remember my personal best game, or our teams exact record of each year. What I do remember is achieving what I to be the impossible. I remember over-coming my fears and the hard work I put in to accomplish my goal, or rather the goal that was set for me.

When I graduated, Coach Wagner took me and my fellow senior teammates out to dinner. I told this story to her, letting her know I thought she wanted me to fail, hence the CRAZY goal of a 6:15 mile for a 6’2” post player. She could not believe that was my perception. She laughed and said, “I never wanted you to fail, I set that time because I knew you could do it.”

So my point is, only YOU can encourage or discourage yourself from making your goals. You can overcome what you perceive to be the impossible, and the feeling you’ll get when you do overcome it is something no one can take away from you.

I may not remember any other personal stats, or my team’s win-loss records, and so on, however, I will never forget the stat of 6 minute and 14 second mile time. The reason I will never forget that is because I worked so hard to get there, I accomplished it, and I worked hard with my team to do so.

When you are facing a situation that seems to be impossible, remember that challenges bring opportunities to prove yourself and to better yourself. Step up to the plate and work hard, because accomplishments do not come easy in life. Everything worthwhile in life is hard work.

Thomas Edison once said:

“If we did all the things we are capable of doing we would literally astound ourselves.”

Thanks for asking me to speak here today. I hope you have a wonderful homecoming weekend and GO VIKINGS!!!!