User talk:Dond22

We often have trouble overcoming things in life. We often find ourselves so concerned with the problems of others to where we forget about our own problems and that takes away from us growing as people in this world. I invite you to read the following speech that I did on Feburary 19th 2008, it deals with overcoming adversity and standing up to what is in front of you...no matter how big the obstacle or problem may be.


 * The Renaissance **

“As I stand here upon this day, a day that will live in my mind forever and a day that has been appointed and set by God to convey a message of perseverance, belief and an acceptance for what is to come on your road of life. Many of us right now fear where we are headed in our lives…being quite honest…I fear my own future as well even though I know it will all be prosperous. The challenges I’ve faced, the people I’ve met, the things I’ve seen and the words I have said all of these things have led me to stand before you today to give to you what you have given me…knowledge and confidence. There was once a time in my life when I didn’t believe in the gift I was given, there was once a time in my life when I thought it was all over, that I would never be the same again. I have faced the adversity of overcoming my own fears, of not giving in to the desire of accepting failure as the easy way out. I have stood in the face of those that do not care, of those who think only of themselves, of those who wouldn’t and couldn’t care for me or anyone else that I have in my life right now. In their eyes I have seen hate, rage, anger, despair and all the things that influence many of you to begin walking down this path of darkness that they have set before you. Blinded by the words of people who wish to see you travel the same road that has led them nowhere in life. Day by day you travel with them, wasting precious and valuable time that you could use to become your own leader instead of following those who lead you to the same hole they fell in; and when you fall in this hole, not even them that led you to it can pull you out. I see too many of you following instead of leading. Leaders are born, not made. It is within all of us the gift of leading, the gift of making someone happy and it is within you my friends, to change the course of someone’s life…forever. A life that should matter to you just as much as your own and I can promise you that when you step outside this “box”, that when you decide to start living to help others more than you help yourself, the persecution you will face, the words they will say and the things they who go against you will do toward you will be unbearable. I have traveled this road, untouched and unscathed by anything that they have tried to harm me with, never succumbing to the pressure they put upon me to change who I am, to change my life from living for you to living for myself. My friends I ask of you, to kill the fear within, I ask of you to break the chain of being a follower and no longer shall you be blinded by someone who doesn’t know where they are headed in life. Giving way to emotional conflict and personal struggle that you will endure along this time of facing your enemies and foes that attack you relentlessly while holding on to yourself at the same time, trying not to let go of the piece of you, that you once knew. Many of you have lost who you are at some point or another, all because you decided to listen to what sounds good, instead of what is right. Never again shall any of you be lost in yourselves, for it is upon this hour with these words that you find the you that is buried beneath the waste and dirt of the soil that you buried who you once were. Uncovering this dirt to clean yourself of it, uncovering the waste that laid on top you for so long and rising from the ashes of a past that you let someone else create instead of yourself. My friends we shall face what is to come together, many of you will not be able to bear such the burden that is to come in life and many of us will fall to the wayside but not I those who wish to see me fail, those who wish to see my demise and those who wish for this not to be said, I say to you I cannot and will NEVER BE DEFEATED!! For I stand in the ground, tall and strong with roots that pass this strength and desire I have within me to my friends who feel this same way, to my friends whom hunger to find the motivation to become stronger, to rely on the power that is within. Stand up, upon this day in time and no longer follow those who dig their own graves. Because as Malcolm X once said “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything”. My friends, I shall never abandon you, I shall never let anyone tell you what is wrong and I shall never let you fall. For you have been sent one who will stand with you in the face of adversity, in the face of the one’s who wish to see you unsuccessful and there with them we shall stand in the battlefield of life, unmoved, and impervious to what they may try to bring upon us. Our days here will be cloudy but through faith and endurance our sun shall shine once more. In conclusion I say: Everyday of our lives shall be a fight, we will get knocked down, we will get criticized and slandered for no apparent reason at all but through all of this, we still shall stand in the face of our enemies and watch as their efforts to hurt us will fail. For no one can hurt you, no one can defeat you and no one can make you something that you aren’t but it’s only when you let them that they succeed. So shall you be controlled and influenced by the actions of others or will you break the chain and become the positive influence of the negative one’s who antagonize you. It is just like every decision we make in life… a choice…so I say to you. Do what is right. These words were sent from my father to help you with your life and I will continue to pray for all of you my friends and as my father once said: “And know that I am with you even unto the end of the age amen. Thanks.”

Darnell Steele: 2/19/08

Proposed deletion of Believing in yourself
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 * Personal essay, written in the first person, not encyclopedic

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