Damel Carter

2007 SAM State Winner

Ben Hill County

Public Speaking - High School

No More Caboose

A Speech By Damel Carter

 

Hi! My name is Damel Carter and I'm a senior at the Ben Hill County PLC. Yes, a senior, and I say that with pride and a smile on my face. Don't get it twisted. I wasn't always this way. I was never in front of the class, but more like the caboose. I have been struggling all my life, playing tug of war against myself.

Just a year ago I didn't know what CIS (Communities in Schools) or PLC (Performance Learning Center®) meant. Close your eyes for a moment. Now imagine growing up in a town that's only known for crime. I think Bill Withers made that song for me because there was no sunshine at all.

It was just me and the concrete, sweaty hands, and my heart beat. Have you ever been hungry but couldn't eat, words in your mind, but out your mouth you couldn't speak? (Just like a mime). If you were given an offer to make a little cash flow would you take it or leave it? I took it with no hesitation, not thinking about the consequence.

I was tired of wearing holey pants, having ashy elbows, ankles, and knees. Why couldn't I have nice things? I'm no Dr. Martin King, but I got a dream. It seemed like nobody cared so why should I? My back was against the ropes; sometimes I felt like throwing in the towel but I couldn't do that.

Call me a crab in a bucket. No matter how hard I try to get to the top, I always get pulled back to the bottom. My grandma always told me that the Lord puts no more on you than you can bear. After seeing my life flushing down the toilet like a goldfish, I had to put it back together.
Seems like I took a road trip and didn't pack a spare. In and out of high school, I stayed in In School suspension more than I stayed in class. I was the only one with my personal desk. No matter how full the class got, they always had a seat reserved for me.

After getting in so much trouble I graduated from In School Suspension to the Alternative School. They say it's a school for bad students. Not to me. I took it as a place of reflection, to look back on my actions. You want to know something funny? Everything happens for a reason; it was just my due season.

I got my second chance, but if only you could feel how I felt to have that weight released off my body. I felt like a mother with her first newborn, or getting baptized on a Sunday morn.
No more waking up from a wet pillow of tears. Communities In Schools. I call them CPR. Yeah, they brought my life back. Performance Learning Center took me in and gave me an environment of comfort and acknowledged me as a person.

I thank them all from my heart, body, spirit, and Soul because just my heart isn't enough. Anybody who says you can't turn coal into a diamond in a short time doesn't know me. I'm living proof. Communities In Schools and the Performance Learning Center rewrote my software. I'm no longer a Windows 95' but a Windows XP.

This is the only school that I know that not only teaches you your basic academics but helps you build your character. Most schools prepare you for a job but the Communities In Schools and Performance Learning Center prepare you for LIFE.

Thanks to the PLC I now have a 3.8 GPA, head of class, early grad, well respected, with a dressed-for-success attitude, and I'm success bound to enter MIT in February in the field of software engineer.

But none of this could have been possible without ClS and the PLC and its teachers. Teacher isn’t the word to describe them; they’re more than that. They’re like a psychologist – they get in your head. Not only do I respect them, but I honor them because they not only lead through their voices but also their actions.

They're my MENTORS, HEROS, and ROLE MODELS!

No more back of the class. No more caboose; but the conductor of my life's train.