You were not a mistake, you were not an accident, you were here for a reason. I know you're going through some hard times, I know life at times might feel rough, or you might feel weird and things might be frustrating, but it's not going to always be like this. Your condition it's not your conclusion. I've gotta just take five minutes to kind of just unpack my story so that you have an idea of who I am and why I speak with a passion that I speak with.
There Was A Time When I Was In A Really Dark Place. You know my mom had me when she was 16 years old. I Grew Up Without My Biological Father In My Life. I struggled for years for drug and alcohol abuse. And I just found myself in a really really really weird and dark place I had to repeat the seventh grade and when the eighth grade came around I'll never forget carry that a parent-teacher conference A teacher tell my mom that I wasn't high school material.
And I came tell you that words are powerful and when I heard that statement I remember feeling like, wow, you know like I am really really a failure, you know. Like it's one thing to tell a student hey, okay, you're about to graduate from high school you're not college material, you're not going to go to an Ivy League. Maybe you should go to a tech school. Like, I've heard that, right? Like, different people have different paths but but how do you tell middle school kid that they're not ready for high school? Like, it affected me.
And I've never forget going that next year and after a series of events a lot of fighting, a lot of struggling that school ended up picking me out. They got all been out of shape because I cut the electricity off. The next year I went to another school got the report card at the end of the year and because I did not do well and I did not put good in when I got that final report card all F's One C and my mom is this tall but when she gets mad she turns into the hulk, you know? and I'm thinking like this is not going to be pretty.
But I came up with a plan, I said you know what I'm gonna change my grades. So I went to the library. I got that white out, I crossed out all the F's in the C. I took a fancy pen and a ruler and I put them small little dots and lines and I gave myself all A's and two B's then I made a copy of it and as soon as I got home, I gave it to my mom. She took one glands. She was like, boy, where you're real report card at? I said Mom, let me explain it. She said, no. No. I don't want to hear it. I know what happened.
So you do? she said, yes. You probably lost it how you always lose stuff and you went to the office and they had to make a copy of theirs on file. I said, yup yup knowing mam. She's ike I know. I'm like, you know everything. She's like know, but at the end of that summer At the end of the summer, when my real car came in. It was really rough. I've never forget like, when I first tricked my mum and she saw it, she was like, I'm so proud of you. She started crying. I even got emotional. I was like, I told you my mama make you proud. She hugging me.
I'm hugging her. We got like a breakthrough. And you're probably wondering like, Jeremy, why were you crying? Like you know you didn't really earn all A's and two B's. Well, For The First Time In A Long Time, I Didn't Feel Like A Failure. Like I Actually Felt Successful, Like Worthy. like. I felt like I was good enough for, so that was a bitty emotional moment, but it wasn't real because I didn't really earn those grades. Now. With my schools in my real report card home and my mom saw it, she was in denial.
My baby made A's and B's so she called the school. I was like ,oh, hang up the phone, mama, hang up the phone. And again, she's in tears. Season two years. But now what was once tears of joy. Now I was tears of sorrow, tears of pain. Tears of frustration and she is trying to figure out like, i wish my baby would just get it together and i was so hurt, but i felt stuck. I was depressed. I was tired. I was struggling. I felt like I was an accident. Like what's the purpose of life like? Why am I here? You know, I felt like I wasn't
I couldn't fit in when it was time to read. I didn't want to read because somebody was going to tease me cause I wouldn't a good reader. We was always getting. Fights, peoples bullying me. Then there was a time when I was the bully like I just struggled and I was like what's the point of it all? And my mom's a great mom, so she moved me to another school. So now I'm at the school now called Huntsville High. This is my third school for the ninth grade.
Now I'm at this new school, and I don't know how to explain it to you, but I got a group of teachers. I felt like were weird. They were saying stuff like. Jeremy we believe in you. Me? one teacher like, oh, yeah, Jeremy Anderson. Up top my mom. Ah, this is going to be the best year ever. I'm like Okay. One teacher, I had to ask, I wad like, wait a second y'all are way too enthusiastic. Did y'all get my transcripts? Like y'all got the right Jeremy. They was like.
Yup, we got the right jeremy but you're in a new season now. So you don't have to worry about the past. I was like yeah but you do know about last year. I said, you know, this is my third school. There's like we're not worried about that again, Jeremy, you're in a new season now, so let's not bring old things into a new season. And they began to speak life to me. They begin to encourage me, they begin to affirm me and because I was young and I was immature.
I kind of felt like. Well, you don't really understand my story. You do not come from where i come from and i try to build the wall up. But you know we're not that wall down? It's love. You know what, knock that wall down. It was perseverance. You know what knocked that wall down? It was like unwavering commitment and support and I realised you could be black, white, purple, blue, green. We need each other. And if you're showing up.
Because you believe in me and you see great thing inside me, like maybe just, maybe i could do great thing. Your mindset, your belief system is everything. It is so powerful and so I came all the way from Atlanta, Georgia to tell you, you were not a mistake. You were not an accident. You were here for a reason. I Know You're Going Through Some Hard Times. I know life at times might feel rough or you might feel weird and things might be frustrating, but it's not going to always be like this.
Your condition is not your conclusion. There is so much more that's going to take place. There Is So Much More Power That's Inside You. If you make up in your mind. I choose to believe that I could do great things and I promise you my young friends, I got to a point in life when I was like, man, I got these teachers. They must really care. Like when you start having teachers that get diagnosed with cancer, but they still shut the school. One of my teachers have arthritis so bad she couldn't even write on the chalkboard.
Other teacher was going through a divorce, another one that just buried her child. I'm looking at all these teachers that's going through life just like you just like me, but they kept showing up, so something inside my brain said. Maybe I am worth it. Something inside me said maybe I can't do great things. For them to jump through all these Hoops and go out of their way to kind of connect with me for them to make these sacrifices.
Maybe it is possible for me. It's the same way with you. Sometimes, I go back to like being that little boy in the hallway that I ever heard that teacher told my mom because I was in high school material. Then I have to remind myself like, no, no, no, no, that's not true. I am that. I can't do that. I can't achieve that. Sometime I have to remind myself, what am I telling you. Like life can be hard, life can be rough, but there's something special And there's something powerful about the human mind and about the human spirit and about the human will.
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