Bathsheba Smithen's Speech

I was able to meet the Dean of TWU Graduate School Dr. Larry LeFlore, a humble man. This was the 2nd year that the Graduate school has done and I will come back every year. Because the information I obtained worth the trip and the time.
Keynote Speaker: Bathsheba Smithen who was born and raised in Virginia and an International Baccalaureate diploma recipient, a graduate of An Achievable dream Academy, and a Mary Hughes-Harley Davidson and McNair Scholar. She has overcome poverty, homelessness and the abandonment of her parents as a teen. (http://bathshebasmithen.com/ or http://cagefreevoices.com/). Her workshop started off with an emotional song and ended with a question “Who are we? Who are you?” Just like the 3 second elevator speech, can

She explained that some of us are haunted by our past experiences that give us rejections in life. We worry about the norm, the surrounding, our parent, etc. She provided 3 ways people can identify themselves. Conformist: are people think that it’s okay that you’re just another cog in the great, big machine called society. You can check out this video on YouTube to better understand what type of people or are you one of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uzZDdYfbpU. This video shows that conformist hand over their own unique power to society and let society beat them down until they became one of them and the cycle start over again. Conformists start comparing themselves with someone else with no selfless. Instead of breaking the mold, we allow the mold to break us, turn us into someone that not ourselves. The Reconstructed rebel: the idea of change is to break things. Everything in place need to be undone and everything about you need to be change. They think every previously held belief about self is warped or damaged.

But due to the weather and the long 1 hour drive from Richardson in this raining weather last Saturday, I didn’t want to take the risk. The drive was long with a few constructions on the way. In some area, I cannot see the few cars in front of me due to the heavy rain. But by the end of the day, I found this was so so so much worth my time. I get to meet people that I would have never met if I keep staying in my old circles. I made friends. I also handed my resume to someone who can help me get into the big 4 companies. Breakfast and lunch were served with healthy and tasty choices like beans, spinach, sugar coated walnuts, chicken breast, vegan lasagna, etc. My mind was small before I step into that door, but when I stepped out, I learned a lot of things I didn’t know. I really appreciate the people who put their time into this conference. From the gifts (see pictures), to the easy access to the location, to the intelligent, knowledgeable people that they bring in, I feel welcome to