K The Ken Bradbury Foundation

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Pike Scholars, 2018

How often do you get to hear your own obituary before you begin?

Bummy

Coming to Pittsfield. . always exciting. . .at least if it was 1967 and you were from Perry. ---2 stoplights ---A swimming pool with a lifesaving instructor with 6 toes. . each ---A store where they sold more than one size of socks ---A place that sold soft-serve ice cream with really gorgeous Pittsfield girls filling the cones ---lines down the middle of the streets ---Ralph’s Drive-in bowling alley…rock band, bouncer, $5. Old men on walkers.

I’ve taught high school seniors for 40 years. Coming over here tonight I asked myself, what you’d most like to hear from a speaker. I came up with these words, “Thank you very much for coming tonight. Please drive safely. Goodnight.”

Especially to the teachers here tonight. . . what an honor to be chosen by your student. That’s pretty cool.

Nice intro…but it reminds of me of when my Grandpa heard about my getting an honor in high school. He said, “Yea, but what good are?” He meant, quite simply…what are you going to do with it? My question to you tonight…yes, you’re a top scholar. You’ve made the grades, you’ll be winning lots of honors over the next month…but… What good are ya? What are you going to do with it?

You’re here tonight because you’ve been chosen for your talent. Consider the possibility that there’s no such thing as “Talent.” Personally, I don’t believe in talent. I’ve never seen a baby crawl out of the maternity ward and start painting the Mona Lisa. I’ve never walked by a nursery and heard five new-born infants from Nebo singing Handel’s Messiah. In fact, I’m not sure there have ever been five babies in Nebo at the same time. When someone says you’re talented it’s like asking what Santa Claus brought me for Christmas…uh…nothing. It was Mom and Dad.

Let me suggest instead that when someone calls you talented, they mean you have……A fire in your belly. You’re passionate about something and you’ve got the guts to stretch yourself and do it.

We’re being hosted tonight by the Pike Press. It’s insane to try to run a small weekly newspaper in today’s world…and they do it. They must be really talented, right? Maybe. . . but someone has a fire in their belly. A passion to make it work.

Since you are the best and the brightest…two labels that were never slapped on me in high school, let me give you a handful of tips on using this so-called thing we call “talent.”

My recipe for using this thing we call “talent,” which isn’t really that at all. ….to help you answer the question, “Yeah, but what good are you?”

Ingredient Number 1: Stop griping. Whoever came up with the saying, “Get it off your chest,” should have been dumped off the Florence Bridge at birth. We don’t want to hear it, and it just brings you down to talk about it, so shut up and stop complaining.

Teacher in WalMart in Summertime… “Kids are driving me crazy.” You know what, lady? You’re driving me crazy and you’re getting yourself all depressed by talking about it. Corrie Ten Boom… “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of it’s strength.” That’s true… worry and complaining actually make you weaker. Morning calisthenics in shower.. If any of you can come up to me after the banquet tonight and tell me about a time your life got better by complaining, I’ll stop giving speeches.

Ingredient #2. Realize that despite the very nice teacher you brought tonight and despite your loving parents, YOU are in responsible for YOU. You can’t change what happens, but you’re in total control of how you react to it. At Perry. . freshman had P.E. with the seniors. . Dodge Ball. There’s a dodge ball coming at you… you can’t change it… But you can duck, you can catch the ball, you can let it hit you and you’ll have an excuse to get out of P.E. for the rest of the week. I couldn’t change the course of the ball, but I could choose how I’d react to it.

Dad spanked Keith…he laughed. Dad got disgusted and put him down. (Then of course Keith started crying.)

Air Italia…various reactions. If you’re going to use your “talent,” you’ve got to realize that you’re in charge of your own reactions. Mom . . . Alcatraz

Ingredient 3. Talent is useless unless you give it away. . . spread it around. Be more concerned with others than yourself. Becky… lived here in Pittsfield Don’t take care of your inner child…brat.

  1. You must learn how to be thankful….and show it. Remarkable Senior Class Prom… Goodwill Store Graduation night…notes on parents’ windshields. We’d shoot sparrows in Grandpa’s tin shed. B-b gun… Tried shotgun. . really bad idea. . . it splatters back on you. Giving thanks… some of it’s going to bounce back at you.

  2. Good people tend have good friends. Give some thought to who you pick. Don’t let it just happen. Next year your friendships are going to start over…you’ll have more to choose from. Pick friends who encourage you… Who take joy in your joy. Friends who aren’t bored by life. Marie…Salt and Pepper shakers. The teacher: Ed Anderson . .. notes in boxes

  3. If you’re going to the fire in your belly going, you’re going to have to make some choices. Don’t get so busy with the important things in life that you forget the important things in life. Have you noticed that every time someone needs something done in your school, they come to you? Guess what . . . next year it’s going to get worse. If you’re going to college you’ll be courted and wooed by every group on campus. Decided what’s really important. Right now you’re probably sitting beside someone who’s told you, “Look, you can’t to everything. You’ve got to choose.” James Dobson…monopoly Dad…hay

  4. Choose carefully who you’re trying to please. Hiney the Mule

  5. A fire in your belly can be a happy thing. Lighten up. Don’t take yourself so seriously. If you look around you’ll notice that no one else is.

Jim Kern...MRS. BROWN

LIGHTEN UP.... ....go barefoot more often ....turn off your phone some night and pull taffy. ...eat nothing but ice cream for a whole day. ...wear underwear backwards...will break into uncontrollable giggles for no reason every time you think about it. ....walk up to biggest grouch you know and say “I just want you to know that I feel great!” It’ll throw them off all day. ...do some serious coloring ...break the dress code occasionally. Your own, not the schools. .....McDonnald’s “Have a nice Day” Why? …Pick out somebody who really bothers you and simply be nice to them. Camper: kidnap.

Get really interested in other people. Me: trapped in closet with Mr. Rodgers.

3 things in life are real...WHEN YOU’RE BORN, WHEN YOU DIE WHEN YOU MAKE SOMEBODY’S LIFE HAPPIER in everything else...LIGHTEN UP.

  1. Start living in the present.

Your parents say, “Think ahead! Think ahead!” Your teachers say, “Look to the future! Plan! Think ahead!” The person who knows how to use his or her gifts also says… “Whoa.. wait a minute. I’m thinking ahead so much that I forgot to enjoy where I am!”

Some of you during my speech have been thinking about how long...., tomorrow, this weekend. When you drive home tonight, enjoy the moment you’re in. Your time with your parents is about to become very short. Show at New Salem one night.. turn out the lights and look at the moon. Look around. This is the last time in your life that you’ll be in the same room with this remarkable group of people. Stop thinking ahead and enjoy it.

  1. Probably the single most important thing in keeping your passion, the fire in your belly to use your talent. . . Your faith. You may say. . But I don’t have any. Then find a nice Baptist lady to pray for you. What’s it gonna hurt? I don’t teach in the public school any longer so I can say this… If you don’t have any faith, talk to someone who has. That’s the single most important thing I’m saying to you tonight.

Once upon a time your grandparents looked at your mother and father when they were your age and hoped that they would become leaders and bring something wonderful to the world. They did…It’s you. Now let’s take that ball and run with it. What good are you? Keep that passion. . .that fire in your belly and you’ll find out you’re a whole lot.