Lecture

A few weeks ago our inquiry professor told us about the author Wes Moore coming to Southern to give a speech. She told us to save the date and highly encouraged us to attend.  The reason why he is so important to the freshman class is because we were given a copy of his book over the summer and very highly encouraged to read it during and after orientation. I did not mind going, but there was one tiny problem. The date of the lecture was my birthday. It was not exactly how I wanted to spend my birthday, but I decided to go anyway.

Now I am going to be completely honest for a minute. I did not read his book. I read the sections I was told to for orientation and then I attempted to read it later. I think I may have gotten through most of the first chapter before I gave up. I had no desire to read on and plus I am in the middle of reading a really good series. I mean, have you ever just got so caught up in a series that everything else you read is just so bland and boring? Well that was the situation I was/am in.

So I drove to Southern to go see Wes Moore and I’m honestly glad that I did go. He obviously talked about his book The Other Wes Moore. For those of you who have not read this book here’s a little summary. The author and another guy share the same name. They grow up in the same time era a few blocks away from each other. They both grow up fatherless (for different reasons). The author became successful and won awards. The other guy is in jail for life for killing an off duty cop during a robbery.

But Wes Moore just didn’t talk to us about his book. He talked to us about life. He said that everywhere we go we’re in a new surrounding and we need to adapt and shine in different scenarios. He also said that what’s important to us today won’t be important to us when we get older. We need to do what we love and makes us happy. Wes Moore wasn’t there just to talk about himself and his accomplishments and promote his book. He was there to share a story and to encourage us to live up to our potential.