Inspirational speaker encourages students to make smart choices

WEBUTUCK — Webutuck students were inspired to consider their choices and to not take the people who care about them for granted at three Webutuck PTA-sponsored assemblies featuring inspirational speaker Ron James on Thursday, Oct. 3.

Coordinating with the first three periods of the school day, the PTA organized three separate assemblies for Eugene Brooks Intermediate School (EBIS) and Webutuck High School (WHS) students. The program endorsed a message about choices, modified to suit the different age groups.

Drawing from his experiences as a man who spent 25 years of his life in and out of prison, James initiated the assemblies with a simple sentence: “We make choices.”

Raised in Philadelphia, Pa., James remembered his family’s move to another city where he and his sister were the only black students. After being called out by his classmates for walking and talking differently, he switched his behaviors to fit into his new environment, only for it to backfire when he visited his friends back in Philadelphia. Striving to be a people pleaser, James watched his attempts backfire every time he changed himself to satisfy others.

To combat the people who teased him, James decided he would fight. When they laughed at the way he read, he declared that he hated reading and found a way to get into college by cheating. Yet it didn’t take long for his professors to find out that James didn’t know how to read, let alone construct a sentence, and he was asked to account for himself.

After quitting college, James dealt with underage drinking, addiction and homelessness. As he shared the details of his life story, James said that if somewhere down the line students decide they don’t want to end up like him, they are headed in the right direction. 

Drawing from one powerful anecdote, James recollected a memory of coming home in a state of ruin. Yet even after he received his mother’s love, a good meal and a long sleep, he said he woke up to only one thought: to continue the state of madness in which he was living. Taking his mother’s rings and selling them, James said, “I singlehandedly burned the existence of the one lifeline that loved me: my mother.”

Recalling another visit home, James explained that what ultimately sent his world spinning was the moment his mother told him she knew he had taken the rings and accepted it because she thought he needed them more.

“See, my mother gave it her all,” James said.

Inviting teachers and administrators to stand with him, James told the students that his mother never got to see him as a successful speaker or as a published author. However, he explained that she always saw something in him that the teachers see in their students: potential. In spite of what might be going on in their personal lives, James reminded the students that their teachers still show up every day and believe in them.

“What they do and what they give is their all,” James said, “and they give their all because they love you. They want you guys to make it, and they’re doing everything they can to make sure you believe it.”