(10/12) “The next morning I went to school. I was still drunk, but I found my way to the couns
(10/12) “The next morning I went to school. I was still drunk, but I found my way to the counselor’s office and picked up some college applications. By the end of the week I’d sent them all off, and one month later I got an acceptance letter from Stonybrook University, with a full scholarship. They offered to pay for my dorm and everything. The first thing I did was text DiCo. He was so happy. He asked me to come visit his school and speak to his new team. He’d invited me before, but I’d always been too ashamed. Because nothing good was happening in my life. But now I had some of my confidence back. DiCo met me at the front door of the school. He was wearing a full suit, and he seemed happy. He seemed himself. He gave me a tour of the school and we ended up at his classroom. At FDA there had only been eight kids in debate. But now DiCo had 75 kids. There were extra teachers helping him. There were brand new laptops, and brand-new materials. And there were so many trophies. These kids weren’t just competing at Harvard. They were winning at Harvard. DiCo took me across the room to this wall where he’d hung up all these pictures of famous people: there was the first black astronaut, and the first Latino judge. It was called ‘The World Changer Wall,’ or something like that. And my picture was up there. Obviously I didn’t belong on that wall, but I was on the wall. This whole time I thought that DiCo had been ashamed of me. But my picture was on his wall. The bell rang and all these kids came running in. Some of them recognized me. They were tugging on my sleeve, being like: ‘Tell us the Harvard story.’ I was like: ‘You told them that?’ And DiCo’s like: ‘I told them everything. None of this would have been possible without you.’ I needed to hear that. It made me feel like what I did for those two years wasn’t lost. When the practice began, DiCo tried to make me feel like I was a part of it. Every time a kid was presenting, he’d be like: ‘Jon, how would you answer that? What would you do?’’ During one of the sessions, he pointed out a kid across the room. He said: ‘That’s you freshman year. His parents are on drugs. And I’d love if you could talk to him for me.’” -- source link
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