Speaking At TGS
It’s time that I reveal a major life goal. One Sunday after church in 2019, shortly after I started this series, I ran into one of my brother Luke's best friend’s mom… let's call her Dr. Diana Brooks. Dr. Brooks had found Rules for a Greattastic Life and she asked me if I wanted to come to a class she teaches and talk about autism. Sidebar: This led to a mentor-mentee relationship between Dr. Brooks and I.
Around the same time, I was talking to my grandma (whom I call Nimba) about how to get more publicity for Rules for a Greattastic Life. Eventually, Dr. Brook’s class came up and this led to a discussion about me maybe doing public speaking. I ended up reaching out to my former teacher Kathy about talking at my former school. She said yes, I spoke there, and that led to me getting my current job at my old school.
Speaking in Dr. Brook’s class and at New Story gave me an idea. Use the blog/podcast and any books I write to jump-start a public speaking career. My reasoning for this is simple: I love teaching and writing, but I don't want to burn myself out. While writing gives my storytelling some (at times much-needed) structure, in real life I can talk and tell stories for hours on end. I'm not going to get tired of talking and public speakers (can) make a lot of money. If I start a successful public speaking career, teaching becomes something I do for no reason other than I love it, and writing becomes a hobby that people tend to enjoy with the bonus of some passive income.
Now as I’ve mentioned a lot recently I went to The Graham School (TGS) for high school. TGS has an internship program, and while it's been dialed back to just the seniors, when I was there it ran in all grades. The teachers were always looking for new internship sites and I told them about Dad’s art studio, Kobolt. Every year since I was a freshman TGS has sent a senior to work at Kobolt (Covid permitting). In fact, the 2019 senior, Maverick, designed the Rules for a Greattastic Life Logo.
One of the senior “advisors” Ruth, retired with my graduating class, but she returned to TGS at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year. Because of Covid, I was not aware that she had come back until she came to check out Kobolt with this year's senior. Because I want to do public speaking, I asked Mom for Ruth's email and reached out about speaking at TGS.
On the day that I spoke, one of the other senior advisors, Ken, was waiting at the front desk for me. We walked back into the biggest room in the school, aptly named “The Big Room” where all the seniors were waiting. I said hello to Ruth, and my biology teacher Jennifer, and then I did my presentation. I had a lot of fun and it was good practice for when I start professionally speaking seriously. On top of that, Ruth asked me to come back next year and talk to some of the neurodivergent kids which I'm super excited about!
Have a Greattastic day and be safe!
J. Mitchie Ulibarri
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