Yesterday I visited Point Loma High School (PLHS) in the Point Loma region of San Diego. PLHS is the alma mater of famous pitching and party legend David Wells. My visit was at the invitation of the mother of a student who five years ago, we bestowed a Padres Comunidad Award for Hispanic community leadership.
So I entered Little Aldo’s classroom and saw that he wasn’t so little anymore. Dude is now tall and has a deep voice at age 15. But what was touching was he gave a very thorough and well-researched introduction of me, punctuated by his saying that ”See the Good” was the favorite of my four books. As a writer, that made me feel great.
My message to this college-prep/leadership class was about my life journey and also, given the current timing of the Winter Olympics, the opportunity we all have to be torch carriers – as I was for the 1996 Summer Games. These approximately 30 PLHS students were all freshmen and sophomores and were vastly Hispanic or black. In fact it’s safe to describe PLHS as an inner-city high school. So I really wanted to emphasize the message of YOU CAN DO ANYTHING. Have a vision, fight through obstacles, and achieve your dreams.
What was interesting is this mid-morning class was quiet, as most morning audiences are, and polite, but didn’t ask many questions. That is, UNTIL the bell rang and they were dismissed to leaven. THEN they started individually asking me questions and opening up.
It’s the age group. Kids, especially teens, just wanna fit in and blend. Eventually they’ll learn a crucial lesson: life is much more fun when you’re unafraid to stand out.