What's up?
So, I got some good coffee. This morning I want to talk about diversity.
Is diversity important? Let me tell you about my experience with that.
I'm from a really small town in East Texas called Emory
Emory By God, Texas! That's where I'm from. The population sign said 813 people.
Some of the best people that I've ever known are in that town. So here's what happened with me.
I made a decision to join the military, and my decision to join the military was out of desperation.
What I did was...I I left and went to college for three semesters until I partied my way out of that
and then I moved back home. And when I moved back home, that's when things really started to get bad.
I knew that if I didn't get out of there..if I didn't leave
then I was gonna wind up in a bad situation.
So, I took off
and my Recruiter talked me into this job that was for smart kids. I was a linguist, so I went to language school.
So, at language school they were going to teach me Vietnamese.
I learned Vietnamese.
Crazy! So, I'm at this school on the coast of California, and let me tell you what that was like.
I grew up in Emory, Texas, and if I had the window open at night
when I was going to sleep. I could hear crickets
coyotes and cows.
That's what I could hear, right?
When I was in Monterey, California...Monterey Bay...up on the hill...prime real estate
overlooking the bay...the ocean...the Pacific Ocean...I'm laying in the barracks with my window open there
and I could hear seals barking at the bay.
I was just...incredible the difference.
And keep in mind...at the Defense Language Institute where I was at...at the time
I think they taught somewhere between 40 and 50 foreign languages, and all of the instructors
are from that country. My teachers were from Vietnam.
So, I wound up
in probably the most diverse
community in all of the military.
And for the first year in the Air Force at a DLI...at this language school
I compared everything to Emory.
And the things that I would say was
this isn't how the real world works.
And I was calling the real world
Emory
how it was there. Now, think about that for a second...the real world.
So, my real world...my experience of the world up to that point in my life and what I had accepted as what is
was Emory...the way that it was there.
And this isn't really specifically about Emory at all.
It's about my experience.
And eventually, I found out that my experience up to the point to where I joined the big Air Force
the Air Force is a big place...and then I'm at this language school where there's
so much diversity in people and thought and belief
and getting to know these cultures and getting to know these people
it was incredible. I found out that my experience
up to the point that I joined the military was really small
compared to the real world. The real world wasn't where I came from.
That was just a small tiny experience, and I had entered into a much bigger world.
And one of the things that occurred to me at some point along the way is this.
If you want to fully experience your life, and I don't care where you live.
You can live in Emory. You can live in New York City. You can still have
diverse experiences of life.
And really one of the easiest things you can do is open a book and read, you know?
Watch a documentary of some kind. Just learn about other things, and let me you
geography...the era in which you were born...the community you were born into
all of these things have influenced who you are
completely...all the way down to the very fiber of your being.
These things have influenced who you are, because you, me, or anyone
if we were born on the other side of the world 500 years ago, everything would be different.
Everything would be different. So, it's important to understand that there are different experiences.
There are different types of people, and the key word there is
understanding.
Let me tell you something. I didn't try Chinese food till I was 17, and I like it...ok?
And then when I got to the Defense Language Institute
and I was studying Vietnamese, one of my best friends...and he's still one of my best friends today
Jason Williams is his name. He was a Thai linguist.
So, he was learning Thai, and I tried Thai food for the first time when I was 21-22 years old.
I tried Thai food. Thai food is my favorite food.
And listen to this. It's so fucking simple
but if you don't pay attention to your life's experience, sometimes you're gonna miss some very
important lessons.
Until we wake up to the experience of our life, we're gonna have the same
undesirable things happen over and over and over again.
So...wake up a little bit. Pay attention, and here's something very small
but it's very profound, and it applies to everything.
Thai food is my favorite food.
I never tried it until I was like 21-22 years old, and guess what?
If I would have never tried Thai food
I would have never known that it was my favorite food.
If you don't try things...if you don't get outside of the box that has been primarily constructed
for you...not by you, okay?
The trick is
recognizing that and start dismantling
the parts that don't serve you that are causing you to be stuck
in whatever area that you're stuck.
Dismantle that shit and build it back up
yourself with new and diverse experiences
because if you never try it...you're never gonna know. Your favorite thing to do
could very well be bungee jumping or skydiving
but if you never try it, you'll never know.
There's no way that you can experience the fullness of life without diversity.
Most of the time, the things that we hate
don't like
disagree with
are the things that we simply don't understand
period!
So...diversity.
Understanding. If we're going to come together, right
and tear down all the different things that divide us and separate us
if we're gonna come together, then we've gotta get to know each other.
I'm a firm believer that if we get to know each other, we're gonna find that and we're gonna click.
That's what's gonna happen, and it's all about just
understanding other people. The reason that diversity is so important
the reason that we all need it in our lives is number one, so we can come together
understand each other better
understand each other to the point to know that we all really are kind of looking for the same thing.
So, we can come together as a diverse community
to address diverse problems with diverse solutions.
So that's one reason diversity is important. The other reason is because
you will not experience the fullness of life unless you try new things
unless you get to know about other things...unless you learn about other things...try new things
experience new people, new places, new conversations
and you just might find out
that those new people
the new places, the new conversations...the new things that you experience just might be
your very favorite thing.
So...is diversity important? Absolutely!
One of the things I like to say is, diversity is one of the best teachers
and it will help us experience the fullness of life.
And the things that I'm about...
awareness
awareness of your box
and the parts that help you and the parts that don't.
And once we figure out the parts that don't help us
and we take responsibility for those things and stop blaming
other things, other people, other groups, other ideas
take responsibility for that, because until you can say I did this
I live in this box, and I'm allowing this box to be my experience.
Until you can say I did this, you don't have the power to change it.
You don't have the power to do anything about it. So, first is awareness. Next, is personal responsibility.
And then once you take responsibility, you have to take action, don't you? You have to take action!
If you don't do anything, nothing's gonna happen.
If nothing changes, nothing changes, right?
And I'm also about understanding each other
getting to know each other
appreciating the diversity...of us...coming together as a diverse community
on common ground with a common goal of just...well...first of all
just loving each other...loving each other, and coming up with diverse solutions to diverse problems
and breaking down...these barriers that we've all created.
Sometimes I think about
the conflict that we have in the world and the world that we've constructed, and it just blows me away.
You know?
Borders and...not just borders, but we're gonna build walls to keep people out.
We made all this shit up!
We made all of this up!
We created all of these boundaries, and you know what it kinda comes down to
because I'm better than you. That's why.
You can't come here, because we're better than you.
We're right you're wrong
and it's just so ridiculous.
We're not better than anybody.
So, I'm about coming together.
Awareness, responsibility, action, and then breaking down this bull shit that we've created
breaking down these bull shit barriers we've created and coming together
as the human race.
That's it.
Please take what you need and leave the rest. Bye.
Thank you so much for watching this video!
I hope that you found something of value that you can take and apply to your everyday life.
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