This past weekend I spoke to a group of High School Students from all over Orange County.
It was a symposium that focused on getting the students ready for the REAL WOLRD after school.
Hence it was called…
The group I worked with consisted mostly of high schoolers from their Senior Class.
Also, the event was held in the Lakeview Senior Citizen Center in Orange County.
So it was… Seniors at the Senior Center.
I don’t think the pun was lost on anyone.
The funniest part of hanging out at a place normally filled with the smell of old people and sounds of walkers scuffing on the linoleum floor is using the bathroom. Example::
While in the bath room, mid-pee I heard over the speakers
“ARE YOU OK IN THERE?” They asked urgently.
I was confused, but to be polite I responded::
“Yeah thanks. I’m fine. How are you?”
“No emergency?!”
“Nope. Not my first time doin this. Got it handled.”
What had happened was, a student in the stall next to me thought a button in the stall was the flush button. But it was the “emergency help button.” So instead of it causing a flush, it caused the aid workers to think that scared old people were drowning in the toilets or something equally tragic.
The voice over the speaker was so loud that it had scared the piss out of me.
Luckily I was already peeing.
These Were Some of The People Speaking
(In Order of Appearance)
SUKHEE KANG, Mayor of Irvine
(VERY IMPRESSIVE)
JOHNNY SCHILLEREFF, Founder and President of Element Skateboards
(VERY COOL AND IMPRESSIVE)
JEFF CLINARD, Comedian and University High Alumni
(NOT IMPRESSIVE and BARELY COOL)
Does anyone else find this absurd!!! Look who I am sandwiched in between!
Even if you think I am successful enough share the stage with these men, my thought was…
“The Mayor probably wasn’t sleeping on his brothers couch this morning.”
And to top it all off, I found out that the reason why many of these students were hear to listen to me speak on a Saturday Morning was because…
THEY WERE SATISFYING DETENTION CREDITS!!!
It is fun to know that kids who are supposed to be in detention for punching their chem teachers are instead listening to me tell fart jokes in hopes of inspiring their life choices. Needless to say, this information didn’t calm me.
I just thought,
“I better be funny or these ‘near-adults’ will riot and kill me. Choke me to death with their ipod headphones.”
Some shots I took with my phone of the event::
The students came to my talk in waves of 100. The structure of the day had them going between my talk and several other workshops that were taught by other talented individuals. Mine was one of two that were mandatory.
Even with the detention credits being some student’s insentive… I really had a terrific experience. The students were receptive, and respectful.
I spoke on the topic of “Pursuing what makes you happy.”
I enjoyed telling students things I wish I had known at 17 and 18.
I told them that the story of their life might change as far as plot or setting go, but in the end you are the same character throughout.
I told them my story…
- My time as a hyper kid in Orange County.
- My Success in college.
- My failures I experienced when I graduated.
picture taken after I got paid 20 bucks to get off stage and not perform
I got to say how happy I was to look back and see such a rich story being told through my failures and small accomplishments.
I encouraged them to be proud of the story they were telling with their choices, and try to be a character that they would want to read about.
It was very Donald Miller inspired… I gave credit to his idea don’t worry.
At the end of the day, most students liked it.
Only one student fell asleep out of boredom. (thanks Beckman)
And only one group of loud kids were really hard to manage.
This group of loud students were yelling out during my talk.
It was weird though, these students would yell stuff like::
“OH YEAH MAN, THATs FUNNY!”
or “YEAH YOU ARE A TWIN!”
or “DANG, YOUR HAIR IS ALL BLONDE IN THAT PICTURE!”
I wasn’t sure if they were actually rude or just proud of the fact that they understood what was going on.
The point is… they were rude or kinda stupid, neither of which are good.
Unlike a comedy club, I had no bouncers to help me out with hecklers.
I only had high schoolers that were just as scared of the idea of being punched in the face by these rowdy kids as I was.
By the end of the day, I felt like it was a success. The students and I laughed a lot. And more than any other talk (sorry other talks), I really enjoyed making friends with the group of kids I was surrounded by. I think working with these High Schoolers was the closest thing I have had to speaking to my peers. And it meant a lot to me. It meant a lot to know I might actually be helping them out whatever knowledge I could offer.
Ohhh, and of course no teen summit would be complete without a…
BREAKDANCE-RAFFLE-GIVE-AWAY!!!!
(VERY IMPRESSIVE, VERY COOL, and VERY HARD CORE)
