I Believe I can fly

"Kanye, can I talk to you for a minute?
Me and the other faculty members was wonderin could you do a lil som...
Somethin beautiful
Somethin that the kids is gon love when they hear it
Thas gon make them start jumpin up and down and sharin candy an' stuff" - Intro from College Dropout

I just posted the motivation for this post. The following is going to be details of that story and hopefully inspires the kids. You know something that has will have them "jumpin up and down and sharin candy an' stuff!" So without further Adieu, you get the Honest Man's Motivation

Fall 1994 - Summer 1995. Freshman Year at Da 'House. Computer Science Major. Steady girlfriend across the way at Spelman. Scholarships out da ass. Finished the year with a GPA over 3.5. Dean's List. Got an internship working at a major airplane maker in Seattle. Got the thumbs up from Moms to get a new ride. Yep on cloud nine and about to do my Kanye "Can't tell me nothing routine"

Fall 1995 - Summer 1996. Sophomore Year. New year, new rules. Drop the steady girlfriend to get my pimp game on. Meeting chicks all over Atlanta (Emory, Georgia Tech, Agnes Scott, AUC, Art Institute). Hitting up parties and spots that can't be accessed via the club bus or MARTA. Land an internship in Houston with a major oil company. Course load gets tougher. Arrogance says I can get my party and dating on AND maintain the GPA. Stupidity in thinking leads to GPA slipping under 3. Over a 2 week stretch during the summer, I lose my room and board scholarship, and get placed on academic probation by the remaining sponsors. Received all this news in Houston. Moms is threatening with transferring to local state school. Com Sci chair is questioning my motivation. Being told at rate I'm going, I'll probably graduate in 6 years. Cue the lights going out on my party...

So what did the Honest Man do readers? Do you think I accepted my fate? Do you think I cried myself to sleep? As your friendly neighborhood crackhead aka Ms Whitney Houston said "Oh hell to the naw." That shit was a pure wake up call. What I did was considered pure suicide by most close to me. I signed up for 22 hrs in Fall 1996. 7 classes, 4 for majors. The major classes were Data Structures, Mechanics, Linear Algebra, and Biology. Most people usually only take 2 of those on at once. My crazy ass said Sign me Drill Sergeant!! If you don't think that's tough, then either you never took those classes or you're Doogie Howser. I cut back on partying and dating (don't worry I made those events COUNT when I did go out ;-)). Between constantly listening to "I Believe I can Fly" and replaying my mom and advisor's conversations in my head, I was motivated like no other. Straight taking NO prisoners. My reputation was on the line. I definitely didn't want to disappoint those who were down with me and I damn sure did not want to leave Atlanta. So what happened?

I'm doing pretty good in all my classes. All I needed to do was knock out my finals and I would be back above a 3. I'm not gonna lie, those finals were fuckin' ridiculous. I was like the widowmaker is out and preparing my funeral. I was so stressed out, looking like a bum, hair uncut, clothes not matching, so un Honest Man like :-). I went home for Christmas break and on Christmas Eve, my report card arrived. I was scared shitless as I opened it. When I did open it, I found I had posted a 3.6 GPA for the quarter and brought my average back up. I scared the hell out of my mom because I immediately jumped up and down and thank God repeatedly for the miracle. 4 major classes like that and I made it happen!

Post story was I went crazy again in Spring Semester with 20 hrs and Fall '97 Semester with 19 hrs. But my vision was having a very lightload in Spring '98 which I did (12 hrs). And I learned the Jedi art of balancing the academics with socializing.

Today's Lesson

So whenever someone tells me that I cannot accomplish a task or reach a certain goal, I always draw back to this story. For those reading that work with me, don't ever try to put me in a corner or say I cannot do something. Trust me, if push comes to shove, I'm straight fuckin' yo shit up and taking no prisoners. I'm the People's Champ and their motivation for making it happen. CHUUUCH....