"See No Obstacles"
Randy Pierce Presentations
On Monday, November 20, we had a very special guest speaker come and do three separate presentations with our NMS students.
His name is Randy Pierce, and, in a word, he is amazing. He is blind and has been for over 20 years. The title of his presentation is "Reaching Our Peak Potential: Achieve a Vision Beyond Your Sight." In his presentations, he mentions to all three grades that they are "Not about pitying him and his blindness, but about how you [students] can personally better deal with the challenges that you face."
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| Reaching Our Peak Potential: Achieve a Vision Beyond Your Sight |
Randy referenced many, many times to our students that you need to see that "There are no obstacles; there are only opportunities." He must have said it at least three or four times in a multiple of ways in each presentation. He explained what it meant for our students, but more than that he showed it in his life and the things he has done.
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| The poignant T-shirt Randy wore in the Tough Mudder. |
Randy discussed about how disability is just an aspect of who he is; it is not who he is. Randy is not defined by his blindness or what he can't do. He sees all the things he can do and what he can achieve with his motto of "practice to make progress" for himself.
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| Randy Running the Boston Marathon. |
The power of his words was phenomenal. Randy asked our students to tell him what blind people could not do, and he answered with what he could do or what others have achieved through their blindness. Again, he stressed his point of "Positive Adversity"; things that will make you stronger overall. He asked them to ask him questions and within each thoughtful answer he made a much larger point on how we can all can and should utilize the backwards A, B, Cs of Conceive a Goal, Believe You Can Do It and Keep Practicing to Progress, and then Achieve It. It was such an incredible, simple idea but yet so poignant: The backwards ABCs.
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| Posters Randy gave NMS to put up around the school with his Mottos. |
"Learning to look at the world differently is the key to really having vision. Vision is always going to be way more important than sight."
This was another of what I want to refer to as the profound "Randyisms." They were so extraordinary, one could not help but get caught up in his presentation. The number of amazing things Randy said are so unbelievable to comment on. I can continue ...
"It's not that I can’t. It’s how can I."
"It's all about the choices you will make."
"Mountains are like Goals."
"You reach peak potential by lifting people up."
This is just one of the videos Randy showed which has him taking on a "Tough Mudder" competition. It is just an awesome few minutes that display his fearlessness, tenacity, persistence, grit, strength, and words of wisdom.
Please check it out:
Here is a link to Randy's website: http://2020visionquest.org/index.html as well as a link to Randy's bio: http://2020visionquest.org/randy-bio.html Please check them out as well. Again, he is pretty amazing.
Here are some more pics from his presentations.
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| Mr. Randy Pierce in our #NMSTigerPride Staff T-Shirt. |
