Hello everybody, welcome back to another AI video and this one's going to show you how to remove a watermark from any image. It's very easy to do. The first step is you want to go to watermarkremover.io. This is a new AI program. It's currently free to use and yeah, it's got good reviews and I've already tried it out. It works great. So first step, go to the website, I'll put a link in the description below. Then I'm going to go to my Finder and I'm going to grab that image that I want to drop in. Drag and drop it on top here and then in a split second, it's going to show you the original image and then it's going to show you the revised image. So the original image, it even has a magnifying glass kind of thing for you. So you'll see here it's got copyright on it all over it and it's got some lines on it. The new version, nothing. All you got to do is click on download image and that's it. It's free. It works really, really good and there you go. Thanks for watching.


Wife digs into husband's past, discovers why he's acting strange. What are you doing, he asked. He walked in on her in his study. She was on her knees, elbows deep in an old box where he kept his things from childhood. She searched, frantically. What are you looking for, he demanded again. She paused. Holding old school reports in her hand, she turned to him. I figured it out, Joe. I know what you've been hiding. His heart raced as he wondered what exactly she knew. It was just another evening for husband, Joe Dean as he arrived home late again from another stressful day at work. He was a busy man, always on the go. It was a coping mechanism. Pouring himself into his work seemed to be the one way he felt safe, the only way to keep his demons from following him home to his wife. Growing up, Joe had a tough childhood. He was constantly bullied in school and painfully remembers the many times he felt ostracized and misunderstood as a boy. It left a mark on him. Like a stain that tainted the dark corners of his mind. They were always there, the feelings of isolation and rejection, but he hid them well. So well that his wife never saw what was coming. Joe was smart, very smart. In fact, he was a clinical genius. His unique perspective and high intelligence meant it was always quite hard for him to form friendships as he would rarely conform to societal expectations. This was why he suffered from bullying as a kid. He was different. Some found him unfamiliar and scary, others found him plain weird. But then there was Nicole. Joe met his wife, Nicole, when he was 18. She was working in a hair salon and was new to town. She knew no one. Joe remembers thinking she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. It felt like love at first sight. And Nicole felt that too. She was taken by his charm and intelligence instantly. It was a match made in heaven, but everything wasn't as it seemed.  It was tough to open up about his past to Nicole. So he didn't. Not completely. He only told her what he wanted her to know. She welcomed his vulnerability and pain with open arms and compassion, thinking there were no secrets. But there was. At first, everything played out like a movie. They fell madly in love, got married, bought a house, and had kids. He was everything she dreamt of in a partner. But that would soon change. Slowly but surely, the cracks began to form and Joe's unspoken past came creeping up to the surface. Joe had always been career driven. It was one of the things she loved about him. But now, with the kids growing up, she was finding herself alone more often. But what made her first realize something was wrong was the reaction she got when she asked him to work less. It was an absolute no. He claimed work needed him, but she knew they didn't. It was the first lie and the first time she realized he had secrets. Nicole thought she knew her husband better than anyone. He had odd quirks, but she grew to accept them, even love them. But now, she was confused. She was failing to understand his behavior more and more. She decided to look online and see what chat forums would have to say about her husband's odd behavior. Should she be worried? She opened her laptop and searched for explanations and advice on how to deal with his behavior. Then she stumbled upon something that made her heart stop. She raced into his study and looked for his old school report cards that he kept in a memory box in the corner of the room. She was on her knees, elbows deep within the box when he walked in. What are you doing? He asked. I'm looking for something, Joe, she replied. Looking for what? Nicole asked him to take a seat. She found what she was looking for and brought the laptop to him. I figured it out. I found out what's been missing. Joe's heart raced as he wondered what exactly she was talking about. She showed him a video on the internet and asked him to watch it. She pointed to the child in the clip and said, that's you. The boy was on the autism spectrum. She showed him his old school reports. All the bullying, all the odd behavior. It all made sense. The boy in the video was incredibly smart, just like Joe, but also misunderstood and ostracized by his peers. His mannerisms, everything he said and did was exactly like Joe. He couldn't argue with her. His eyes widened as his whole life began to make sense. He thought back to every memory of people telling him there was something wrong with him, or that he would never fit in. Painful memories he kept from her. He always thought there was something wrong with him. Now, he knew there was nothing wrong with him. He was just autistic, he was just different. Soon after, Joe and Nicole found out that their daughter was autistic too, which explained why Joe got on so well with her. They always had an inexplicable bond. Joe thought he was able to hide his quirks from his wife, but after a little digging and intuition, Nicole found the missing piece to his life that he always felt was missing. An explanation. A reason as to why he always felt so different. Now, Joe wants to spread awareness about autism and how it's a spectrum. He wants people to understand that different doesn't mean wrong, and that autism is a gift. Nicole helped Joe understand himself better. She approached his differences with love and understanding, and it made their relationship and family stronger and happier than it ever has been.


Hi, I'm Tom Scherer, NDSU Extension Agricultural Engineer, and today we're going to be talking about water quality in particular, the total dissolved solids. Now all water contains some minerals, dissolved minerals, and at low levels they're good for you, helps the body for all mammals, but when they get excessive, they become a real problem. Especially in the western part of the state, in the summertime, when water dugouts start to evaporate, they start to concentrate the minerals in the water and it can get to toxic levels for animals. So today we're just going to show an easy way to check an EC meter, electrical conductivity meter to see if it is reading appropriately to measure water supplies out in the environment. Now we're going to be using hand-held EC meters that look like this, which measure electrical conductivity of the water. More minerals in the water, easier to conduct electricity, and therefore there's a relationship between EC and the total dissolved minerals. And on these meters, it measures the conductivity across one centimeter, and there's two probes on here, as you can see, one centimeter apart. So to make sure that the meter is correct, or I've been reading right, we can do a simple test in your home using salt and distilled water. First thing you want to do is just measure out four cups of water to put in a bowl, and you want to do it accurately, so I'm going to get down here and just fill this up. It's on a level surface, so I can see that I got just about exactly two cups, and so I'm going to measure out another two cups. So now we've got four cups of distilled water in here, and to that we want to add one quarter teaspoon of salt, level it off by shaking, and then just dump it in. So we're going to mix up the water, make sure that all the salt is dissolved, and we'll let it set for a little while to make sure it's finished. So then I want to check my EC meter, and on this type, I want to make sure I set the multiplier to .76 so that it gives me an estimate of the total dissolved solids in the water for natural water. So on this one, if I just hold this on and let it up, and I go down, it has these different settings, but I can go down, and at P4 you can see the multiplier set to .76. Every meter does it a little bit different, but you can set this anywhere from .5 up to one if you wanted to. So since that's set, now we'll go into reading mode, and right up here it says TDS. So now if I just stick it into the water and swirl it around, you can see it's reading about 2.54 parts per thousand. If it was reading in, if your meter or another meter was set to read in parts per million, it would be 2,530. And that's about right. And that reading, the way we measure it here, could vary anywhere from 2.4 up to 2.6, and that would be a good reading. Now one caution here is if you have a calibration solution from the manufacturer, I would recommend that you follow their procedure to calibrate your meter. But if you don't have that, or it got lost, or it's old, or you changed the batteries in your meter, or you dropped it, which is pretty common, then I would just mix up a salt solution like this and check it real quick to make sure that it's reading properly.


What's your main emotional need? What are your emotional needs in general? That can be a difficult thing to parse out So what I want to give you today is a way to think about what you need emotionally That'll help you feel balanced emotionally and also Of all these emotional needs which one emotional lead is the most fundamentally important. So stay with me So we're talking about emotional needs here and meeting our own emotional needs is essential It's it's self-parenting really. What do I do to keep myself balanced emotionally? So quick question here from Catherine the kind of Inspire this video Catherine writes I've read your book on emotional needs. My book is free. You can check it out on my website It's called forget happiness. It basically gives you a model for understanding what your emotional needs are There's five in the model I use That's not to say everybody has only five emotional needs But I found so far that it's a pretty good template to work off if you can meet those emotional needs consistently It has a huge impact on our emotional and psychological health So captain's read the book and she says it helped helps me to understand what I need to maintain balance emotionally However, knowing what these emotional needs are is one thing actually meeting them is another So time restraints interruptions low moods all these things make it incredibly difficult How does one actually go about meeting your emotional needs and doing this effectively? So that's a great question Now the book will Tell you what the emotional needs are. I'm a bit reluctant to tell you what they are the book is free go and read it The reason I'm reluctant is that Once you hear if I was to tell you what the first one was without telling you the rest of them You might start to get a little bit defensive. The first one is is about responsibility So it can sound like I'm the self-help guy telling you take more responsibility The last emotional need is about laziness and how important it is to be lazy in your life proactively deliberately consciously lazy So, you know, if I was just tell you about responsibility for next five minutes You might start to think oh my god, this is this guy's asking me to do this and it's not like I don't have responsibilities Problem is it's a part of life, but it's not all life. So we're looking for balance here in this But there's there's three other emotional needs. There's meaning purpose creativity there's Take care of yourself physically and also the last need here and this is going to help Catherine I hope is well, what is How do I go about meeting these needs? How do I balance them because life is full of interruptions and and and disruption and complications and Restraints time restraints everything else the law that the fourth emotional need in my model is The need for reflection Now the need for reflection in my model and as far as I'm concerned is the most fundamentally important emotional need there is To take space for ourselves to sit And occasionally ask in reflection. What is it? I need emotionally. What's missing? What's out of balance? And most people think that the most fundamental emotional need is the inner child or the need for human connection What I'm talking about here in self parenting is not even about relationships I'm just talking about within your own personal self Those emotional needs the relationships are a completely separate issue entirely Equally as valid and as important, but I'm not talking about that in this In this model here How do you meet your own personal emotional needs? So it's not that the importance of the inner child and the need for connection in relationships is taken for granted here I'm talking about something else self parenting Now when we're going to try and Do something for ourselves emotionally to actually meet our emotional needs so that we're feeling less conflicted within ourselves What we are going to run into is exactly what Catherine has run into which is this is tricky This is not as easy as I thought it was So there's a few things we can talk about there, but really did the number one thing is If you can reflect Regularly just take some time to sit down and think about what it is you need as well as other things I'll talk about those in a moment It's almost as if you're just going in what worked what didn't that's called reflection The thing about it is there the need to reflect on the whole process of self parenting is essential because the way I think about it is this When you're on an airplane and you're flying across a country Really what happens is we don't fly in a straight line We fly in different directions and there's this constant course correction going on now itself parenting It's almost as if we're flying Invariably we go off course Okay So reflection is the okay. I need to a little adjustment here I need to course correct So we come in and we change and that we're back on track again But if we stay on that track now inevitably we're going to go off track again So it's this constant thing of coming back on track and how we do that is true sitting down Silently in a space for ourselves just to think to process reflect About what it is we need So reflection is essentially important because as Catherine says this is tricky And it does need kind of constant vigilance Now it's not just about Time management and things like this reflection reflection is also essentially important because When we're meeting our own emotional needs and just live in life in general, we're going to come into contact with Triggers, we're going to come into contact with disappointments emotional upset pain and Reflection is also a space where we bring that pain and that those little disappointments where we process them because Processing those those those disappointments for instance is essentially important because if we don't process them They're going to build up and it's going to knock us off course entirely So I don't want you to think that reflection is all about Looking at your schedule and scheduling and time management self parenting is about that But it's also a space where you can do other things. There's there's no real there's any amount of tools you can use in reflection Meditation inquiry The bit really looking at time management is a perfectly valid Thing to do in reflection. So there's all sorts things we can do with it But really what we're trying to do in reflection is Come to terms with the fact that my default setting as I go about living my life is to be quite reactive to things I can get triggered by things all the time and to know that that's completely natural and predictable and normal I'm going to get triggered. I'm going to feel upsets and disappointments If we don't go into a reflection we'll find ourselves in this constant reactive mode to life So reflection is recognizing the need Okay, I'm probably going to be reactive unless I because that's the default setting for us is to be reactive React into life external events and situations all the time and people Reflection helps us to come out of reactivity and to into more of a proactive thing about this is what I'm doing This is my path. This is my direction So it's essentially important for that also and the other thing about reflection is that Reflection also helps us overcome the default to beat ourselves up all the time because usually if we're struggling emotionally with something Really, what we're all doing is we're just beating ourselves up about it and blaming ourselves Putting labels on ourselves for why we're not able to meet our own emotional needs So reflection again if you slow down and recognize that tendency to be harsh on yourself What you can start to proactively do in reflection is rather than be yourself up is to use what I call fortification Where it's a deliberate practice where you're actually trying to Maybe focus a little less on the to-dos and what you need to do and what you should have done and on who am I As a person maybe I'm just a person. I need to give myself some credit here I need to support myself unconditionally and remind myself of that in something like journaling for instance It can be good to practice that So to sum it up here Catherine and for anyone else who's watching All your emotional needs responsibility meaning purpose creativity physical health reflection spontaneity laziness They all do require balance So it's gonna be it's gonna be something that we need to kind of constantly course correct on and keep an eye on in terms of self-parenting So many of us are attentive to other people's needs all the time But we neglect to look at what it is we need emotionally So we're looking for there's other tips in the book too. It's not like we have to perfectly balance these emotional needs sometimes the need for responsibility can become Quite overbearing and quite needs a lot of our time and attention But we find ways even in those situations to meet these other emotional needs The other thing I tell people too is when you're going about meeting your own emotional needs What is the most I can give to each of these needs is the wrong question We should be asking ourselves. What's the least I can give to these emotional needs? Consistently and regularly so that it actually will happen and these needs do not need an awful lot of time and energy They need what they really need is recognition and validation most of all and sometimes just a little time and energy Is more than enough than they need the difference between Everything and nothing is is the difference between something to an emotional need and nothing to an emotional need is everything Let me repeat that again the difference between Something going into an emotional need and nothing going to emotional need is everything So we just look to meet them regularly give them something and it helps us feel validated and emotionally balanced I'm speaking way too much in this video and I'm trying to cover too much The book goes into it in much more detail. But as I said, it's free on the website and feel free to go and check that out But Catherine focus on reflection and realize that it's inevitable that you're going to feel like you're going off track from time to time with this But we course correct true repeated and frequent reflection Guys thanks for being with me as always and I hope that's useful and I'll see you again soon in the next video Take care


Did you know that according to statistics, 84% of women attest to having a toxic personality friend at some point in their lives. Although this study was focused on women, toxic friendships do not affect only female folks, everyone has unwholesome people around them. However, if you want to be better in life, you must avoid these people entirely. In this video, I will show you 10 types of people to completely avoid. If you are new here, consider subscribing to this channel for more awesome videos. 1. The Down Tucker Jeff, you can't. It's impossible. You don't have enough funds. The economy is down. You will never succeed.  People won't patronize you, etc. Do you have people who say such words to you? These kinds of statements destroy dreams that failure ever will.   Down Tuckers never believe in you. No matter how much you try to convince them, they will always give an excuse to doubt you and your ideas.  Reason being that, although you may be able to ignore those negative words consciously, your subconscious mind picks them up and stores them and over time, it brings them back to you as negative thoughts which may destroy your zeal. So the best thing to do is cut Down Tuckers entirely from your life the moment you notice them. 2. The Critic We all need someone who can offer well-resigned and factual opinions about our behavior, career and life in general. Even if some of the views may be negative, this individuals are not negative people. They only offer constructive criticisms which may sometimes appear in an unfavorable light. However, if a person continually criticizes you, no matter what you do, it becomes a big problem. It is even more suspicious if this person questions your ideas without concrete facts. When a person continuously attacks your viewpoints, you may begin to reason that means you can do anything right. That feeling will undoubtedly diminish your self-esteem, especially if you value their opinions. The critic will stylishly insult you whenever they are not satisfied with something. And the truth is, nothing you do will ever satisfy them. Also, most critics do not know how to differentiate between a person and an act. They criticize a person instead of the behavior. Like if some of the following sound familiar, what have you done this time? You always mess things up. You are capable of, if yes, then you should all together avoid these people. People who care about you won't take any opportunity to build it to you so that they can feel better about themselves. 3. The Manipulator One of the most familiar, unhealthy personality traits identified as manipulators. Sadly, we all have had such type of people in our lives who manipulators and even more painful, that might be challenging to identify, a manipulator possesses different kinds of attitudes which they use. Depending on the situation, they pull time and energy out of your life behind the facade of friendship. They can be complex to deal with because they are usually a charming and friendly treat. They take their time to study you so they know a lot of things about you, what you like, what makes you happy, what you think is funny, etc. You may feel that they pay attention to you because they like you or care about you. The fact is that they only use this information as part of a secret plan. Because manipulators are parasitic, they take but do not give, their goal is usually directed at getting something from you. Manipulators are a tricky and toxic set of people. Hence, immediately you observe such trait in a person, discard them, try to avoid such toxic people, otherwise you will end up spending a lot of energy in confronting them. 4. Self-absorbed individuals Self-absorbed people believe in me and not we. Whatever they do, think or say is always surrounding them. They feel that the world revolves only around them. So everything is still about themselves. Everyone must care for their self. But self-absorbed people go way beyond that. Such types of toxic people can be identified by personality traits like caring only about themselves and their activities. They don't show interest in the rest of the world. Their own emotions, feelings, actions, comfort, needs, etc. are always being prioritized at times at the expense of other people. Having these people around is not healthy because they are inconsiderate and you cannot trust them to be there for you in difficult times. Hence, it is better to avoid them. 5.  Or they are naturally thrilled by making others do what they want or think they know how to live your life better than you do. Regardless of their emotions, they try to dictate what you do with your life, resorting to manipulation, oppression or intimidation to make you act within a certain way. Being a control freak in your life is like a people being ruled by an authoritarian or under a military regime. You have no choice, a control freak is tricky. They will make you seem like they want the best for you when all they do is satisfy their urge to be in charge. They'll get to know you well but they'll use what they know to control you rather than to help you find your way. Stay away from the control freak by any means necessary or you will soon find yourself enslaved. You control you and no one else gets to do that. The Twisters Certain toxic people have bad intentions. They generally derive satisfaction from the pain and misery of others. This set of individuals are called the twisters. They are either out to hurt you, to make you feel bad or to get something from you.  The only good thing about this type is that you can spot their intentions quickly, which makes it that much faster to get them out of your life. But then again, they may attempt to manipulate you into letting them into your life again. They will always use words like, I don't know what came over me. I think I had a mental breakdown. To avoid such people from coming back to you with such manipulative excuses, you must cut them off completely. 7. Users Some people will remember you when they want something or they are in trouble. Do you have that one friend whose calls are solely aimed at seeking help and when everything is sorted out, they forget you? Well, if you have this kind of people in your life, then learn to avoid them. Help is all about neutrality and reciprocity. Going out of your way to assist someone who will not even live to pain for you is inappropriate because you deserve better. Even though we should not help people with the mind of being helped in return, it is only appropriate that someone you care about should be able to walk some miles for your sake. Learn to know which person is using you and live them all together. 8.  Now this is not in any way this regarding the role of modeling or mentorship. We all have role models, people we want to be like later in life. However, wanting to be like someone is quite different from wanting to be someone. Wanting to be like someone means you admire some specific characteristics in them. But wanting to be someone is spurred by envy. If a person wants to be you, then he or she has an ulterior motive. They probably want to drag you down and take your position. For instance, you take a photo on social media that got many likes. A person who wants to be you would go to any length to get that same clothing and also strike that exact pose to get more likes and shares than you did. If you notice anyone around you with such behavior or any related attitude, then you should avoid them entirely. They mean no good. 9. Pessimist It can't be done. It's unrealistic. You'll fail and embarrass yourself. Don't even try. As a pessimistic individual, the continuous litany of negativity that flows from the mouth of this person can slowly persuade even the determined optimist that they will never succeed. This people don't just complain or down talk you. They lie with a misguided certainty that they, you and everyone around them will fail and that it's better not to begin in the first place. This people will never make attempts to move forward because they believe that if they do, they will treep and fall and if you spend your time with them, neither will you. Even if you don't adopt their negative ways, you will begin to doubt yourself. You may begin to reason if the risk involved in chasing your dreams are worth it. The pessimist often claims to be a realist but the fact is that their beliefs about the world are based on its uncertainties but that it is nothing but a dark fairy tale. The sooner you entirely avoid this people, the better for you. 10. Ignorant individuals Ignoring people are not uneducated people or even people who aren't as educated as you are. They are not people who don't have a particular set of skills or talents.  They may even be more educated than you are. However, these individuals are closed-minded people who, because of ego, self-righteousness aren't willing to adopt the changes and learn. Even people working absolutes, they think things should only be done one way or that change is never a good thing, they are stuck up in their old beliefs and often refuse to learn from their mistakes even when the facts are presented to them. If you have such people in your life who never listen to the opinions of others then you should altogether avoid them before they transfer their ignorance to you. You may decide to continue being in touch with these people but be sure not to allow them to drain you or contaminate your life. In the words of Hans F. Hansen, people inspire you or they drain you, pick them wisely.


Question one has been asked by Dre, 9085, 9085, thank you Dre, he has asked or she, what got you into photography and teaching maths, so what got me into photography, I realised that I've always really been into it, it's just, I never had a time where I could really focus in and channel my energy right into it, so yeah it just happened when I got injured from footy and I couldn't play for a year because I tore my ACL and had a reconstruction, so I got a DSLR end of 2014, started 2015, that's when I started shooting landscapes and then yeah grew from there. What got me into teaching maths, funny story, so I finished my university degree at the end of 2017 and I, well I just started hustling and trying to find relief jobs and then I found one at Balladura Community College, shout out BCC, hi guys, and I started doing relief and then at the start of term two, I did two weeks teaching year eight, this was last year, year eight maths, so any students that are currently in year nine, BCC, I probably taught you that maths, if anyone's from that maths class, I don't know any of their names, it's like ages ago now, over a year ago, so many students. Anyway, I came up with a thing called the accountability sheet, now I know that Gary Vee has been talking about it recently, like heavily the accountability stuff, but back then trust me I did not know who he even was and I discovered that the way to get the students to work is to keep them accountable somehow and I created an accountability sheet. Now keeping the story short for this one, the accountability sheet was to pretty much check off where they were up to at the start of the lesson and then check off where they got up to at the end of the lesson and that seemed to work very well because I just said that to the main teacher and he was like, bro you got these guys to work, nice. And then after that I got booked out for the rest of the term at the school and they liked me and they said that I had good behaviour management skills and also they learnt the stuff they needed to learn and then before the end of the term they offered me a contract, one term, so term three 2018 at BCC and they offered me a couple of senior school year 11 and year 12 maths classes and those were challenging because some of those students were quite like tough or not tough but like entitled and also they didn't really care. Now I managed to turn some of them around and it was my first year of like out of the job out into the workforce as a teacher post graduation and then you know we were wrapping things up towards the end of term three and I'm just like I wonder how term four is going to go because normally Relief people aren't hired in the last term because of all these all these elements like year 12's are finished up, year 11's are halfway done and they don't really need Relief teachers because the staff that lose the load of the senior kids just take up Relief teaching. So that's what happened and oh that's what I was like okay this is going to happen. Then a few other things that I'm not going to mention and on the last day on the second last day of term three the administration came up to me and said hey can we speak to you in the office and I'm just like okay and then they offered me a contract again they offered me term four full term like 10 weeks and I was just like what really like yeah like I'm keen however one week one week prior to that the school another school called Joseph Banks Secondary College had a matz a position available and my fiance's friend whose boyfriend works out as a matz teacher and I know him already like we've we've mingled a little bit and he got the job there like already and so he talked me up into it and also by luck I'd say it's luck the head of matz there's also Eastern European so we already had that connection because I'm from Russia she's from poor Romania and yeah like we bonded hard and it was like it was like a walk-in easy five-minute interview and then I mean I didn't know any of that at the time obviously but what had happened was back at Balladura Community College I just said to them hey guys I accept your offer however give me 24 hours I have one interview one interview at another school and the only difference is that that interview is for a permanent position now one term contract where you're no idea what's going to happen post that contract and not getting anything for six weeks over the school holidays versus permanent job so I was like yeah I'm going to go for this interview and see what happens three hours after the interview the principal called me and she said we'd love to have you you're welcome aboard and I'm just like good thanks so yeah I've got the job and spent my last day at Balladura and yeah it was it's just it's just how it is it just how it happens I did say to Balladura I said hey guys I will accept a permanent job if you upgrade it from a contract right now and unfortunately they weren't in a position to do that and that's not my fault or anything that's not you know it's just life is so so for any kids watching from Balladura I didn't lose my job there I didn't quit I didn't leave because I hated the school I love the school you guys are awesome but for a career choice it was the smarter option to go for a permanent position and getting a permanent position first year out of uni is is unheard of like it's goals especially not without going to countries so yeah um thanks for the question Dray that was a great one there's a story about last night's stream um we hit 100 viewers for the first time I've already been streaming live on tiktok for about a week and this is my fourth episode I didn't record last yesterday's episode regrettably however we did get a couple of screenshots thanks to a few people Harry and Rhiannon got the screenshots to me first of my 75 online milestone and my 100 online milestone so I guess it's upwards and onwards from here we're cruising currently at 55 online and I mean it would be great to get up to 100 again that'd be that'd be dope but it's like a milestone you've hit it now I'm like cruising at mid 50s and like 50 people are watching me live that's crazy that's crazy and a week ago nobody knew who I was and I'm also getting instagram messages saying love your stuff you're inspired I mean this is what I want to do this is this is goals this has been goals forever um you know the kids at school and I told my year 7s today that I'm not going to be a full-time teacher next year they were pretty sad about it and and as as as much as it breaks my heart you know like I've got to do me first I want to see what I want to do if it's exactly what I want to do if I go and give it a go and do my photography and videography full-time and it is for me then I'll pour teaching in the back pocket it's always going to be there but until then I need to know otherwise it'll be sorry the flight flew into my thing as I did that and pinched it bye bye but yeah I need to know I need to scratch that itch otherwise I feel like I might resent myself and regret it you know what I mean so yeah just an update for you 100 people have viewed me at the same time and last night we got up to 1100 people across the one hour that have tuned into me lord harrah harry one of the ogs has asked me um what's the one thing that people misunderstand about you so back when I was a footy player um a footy player um I played in the waffle for eight years and uh you know you get you get into the scene and you get into like the um the culture and and then they start labeling you as a footy guy a footy boy a typical footy guy who you know um uh fools around and isn't really serious with their relationships and stuff like that there's so many like cliches and stereotypes and I didn't like it I didn't like the fact that I would um meet someone at uni and talk to them and they're like oh oh you play you play footy uh you know there's other people obviously they're like oh you play footy that's awesome you know um but yeah I um I was always labeled as Wilson I was always labeled as a footy player the typical footy player and I'm like I don't like that but the fact is um I didn't like to really go out after footy I was sore and I wanted to go home or as the boys always went out always and I just wanted to rest up and chill out play video games do my thing um but this is before I did uni this is before I did in my photography and then yeah I focused I focused I didn't drink that much at all I still don't really do that either and that's when I really improved my footy craft and then uh obviously injury came in and stuff like that but um yeah I um my my biggest misunderstanding is when people label me something I'm not and yeah people spread rumors about you and now I'm like eh it's not really a bother like if someone thinks something about me I'm like you don't know me you don't know me what you're saying what you're saying comes it down let's have a chat let's get to know each other and then see if your opinion is the same still um but the other thing as well and this is a good bit of advice to you guys is if someone ever um talks bad about you and spreads rumors about you and they're not open minded to talk to you in person one on one um then it's really not worth the battle because you're never going to get through to them they personally want to attack you for some reason they're using their time to try and waste your time now that is a complete waste of time so yeah and that's when I figured that out that fear or that um one thing that people misunderstand about me that was eventually my fear I was just like no that's their problem and I might the end thank you Harry for that question Kevys Island uh hang on Kev good thanks Kevys uh asked me what is the most important thing you've learned from your students um I mean going back to last year I taught a few tough students from other schools and they taught me um by like by by design um to be more persistent I've always had confidence I've always had um patience and uh but yeah persistence is definitely another one which is kind of similar in the same category as patience but yeah persistence so not giving up on that student like I'd never lose my patience I'd raise my voice last resort but then that's it and then uh yeah persistence works because later later on those students become like they want to be involved um they're like oh this teacher's actually not that bad because when you leave then they realize oh damn he's actually that he's actually decent and then they'd message me on instagram and stuff after they graduate and ask if I can be their reference true story so persistence with those students and I do tell them this in my class right now even today I said to a student don't be a bin kid because one day if you put in the effort and you want a refer referee yeah referral for a job I'll I'm happy to give you a referral but you have to put in the effort here and you can't be lazy because if you are that's what I'm gonna say to them oh hey yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I told him last year yeah he was quite lazy and didn't really get the work done so yeah sorry to bust you to kill your vibe but yeah and um he's not really that motivated and he gets to he doesn't really get the work done last minute hang up right films the future 15 has asked me what is my favorite movie and favorite scene my favorite movie of all time and I can tell that it's my favorite movie because anytime it's on air which actually like every six months is the Shawshank Redemption and my favorite scene is also from that movie it's more a narration towards the end of the movie where um the main character um Andy says get busy living or get busy dying now I'm starting to think that it wasn't actually Andy I'm thinking it was red which was played by Morgan Freeman one of the goats of acting um greatest of all time and he yeah one of them two said get busy living or get busy dying and that's stuck with me forever because you know if you're doing nothing are you actually living you know and you can relate that as as students as kids um at school like yeah you don't want to be at school but what else can you do can you get a job can you get a full-time job year 7 year 8 year 9 probably not it's not you should you should stay at school year 10 yes but are you ready do you think you're ready there's a lot of students out there who are in year 10 who are not ready but who are not made for the school system and you will figure that out pretty quickly but once you finish school or once you get out of school it's no longer a holiday you gotta pay taxes you gotta you gotta work hard and you can't talk back to your boss you can't be late if there's uniform required you have to be perfect every time and it's not even about uniform it's about safety equipment especially if you're leaving school early because it's probably most likely a trade and if it's a trade then it's definitely have to be uniform you have to wear a flannel t-shirt you have to wear protective gear you have to wear steel cap boots otherwise you get hurt and if you get hurt you can't work and if you can't work you don't get paid if you don't get paid you don't eat that's it get busy living or get busy doing so right now if you're a student you're watching this get busy learning the things that you need to learn and if you find it irrelevant well hey we do that we take the else sometimes but sooner or later one day one day it will come back i'm a perfect example and i'm not saying this will happen to you but maths wasn't my favorite subject i had tutoring in maths for high school i was terrible and it clicked it started to click but i was like once i finished that i think god that's over you know finished my year 12 got my waste and the way i went and then years later i'm a maths teacher funny that um am i the best maths teacher yeah i could probably know more about maths and different tactics but you know it's problem solving and that's what i relate my my my maths learning to i can go through every single subject and tell you how it's relevant to you in real life but the main thing is is effort if you learn how to do effort there's always going to be parts of a job that you you're doing whether it's a working at mac is whether it's working in retail whether it's a job of your dreams there's always one aspect of a job that you won't like as much as the rest and you have to do it anyway regardless and you have to learn how to do that so when you're at school and you've got a crappy subject that you really don't like you've got to put up with it and you've got to learn how to deal with it okay because one day if you do well um you'll be able to have that persistence that patience and all of the stuff that i've been talking about that i've achieved because i've just put my head down and did it okay um is the school system perfect no they're developing it they're evolving slowly but at the same time you know um find something that interests you and if you can't then you're not looking hard enough and you've got to try a million different things before you can knuckle down and be like this is my jam right here this is my passion i'm going to go for it thank you for the question what makes me feel accomplished uh by lord harrah um what makes me feel accomplished the thing that gets me going the thing that makes me feel accomplished is the fulfillment that i receive from the other person involved so let's say um if a student learns something that day and they go oh i get it now and then they just go quick and they have a smile on their face that's that's my sense of accomplishment but for me personally with everything that i'm doing i celebrate my winnings but i never really feel accomplished because for me every day is always day one i don't stop i mean i go on holidays and take breaks and stuff but when i get back to it i don't stop i'm i'm like yep start again yep start again cool i've reached the next level yep it's day one again let's go again so yeah thank you so the next five minutes we go super quick and i answer every question and i put that on um the live uh youtube episode and i'll mention every username that answers a question big or small here we go three two one let's do it the halloumi for uh the hallouminati 14 says will you have a new year's resolution for 2020 i already have one right now and it's a seven-day turnaround for all my photography jobs how much money do you make as a teacher i make 2100 a week uh a fortnight after tax what keeps you motivated for photography um the motivation to improve to excel and also when i post my photos people like people like you know that's that's my motivation motivational sort of stuff uh do you want a son yes i do i want a daughter as well i want the whole collection who is the worst afl team in your opinion probably currently the gold coast son uh what motivates you to continue doing teaching the kids best thing about photography the traveling besides perz what state would you like to live in um brrr brisman or melwood um thank you i've guys i forgot to mention your names can you make a tiktok with your year sevens on the last day of school yes i will tom uh kevies are the said do you have kids no um would uh would you put them in your tiktoks absolutely um as a class do you like the mcu uh no idea what that is um team gather says i love you i love you too uh camera and mcderman says would you travel around australia yes but i wouldn't travel by car um harry do you play golf uh i do i have played golf before i played a few nine holes with a few peeps i like going to the driving range too would you ever grow uh full beard says joel yes i would and i have before previously um no no no no no oh marvel cinematic universe yeah one of my friends works for disney and we talk about all the time um bad apples what motivates you to die you already asked that question and feels we future 15 what was your too many comments what was your scariest thing you saw in the car probably someone running across the road real quick um what's your favorite shoe brand by joel uh jordan's we're in australia i've driven to the room i've been to all the cities are you strong yes how do you deal with a bad teacher i just do my own thing um sorry guys these questions are going super quick um favorite brand of car and breed of dog favorite brand of car probably vault swag and breed of dog probably boxer um disney park's character would you want to play probably goofy um or daffy duck what's your favorite tub dog boxer favorite tv show prison break or suits how long have you been teaching two years show us your shoes i agree camera let's show us these people these shoes


What's up everyone? It's your girl, Kenzie here from Layton Sports Cards and I'm ripping 2022 top dynasty baseball hobby five box case break number 41 left side serial number. Again, here's a look at the random results links always available on our website. LaytonSportsCards.com links also right in chat for you again. So you were given a random number through random.org I'm going to open up the boxes and if we pull a nine out of 10 that will go to William in the nine spot a one of one will go to Viviana V so on and so forth. All right best of luck y'all. Here we go. Let's see. Let's see. And y'all we've got another one of these up next only three spots to go three spots left in that one right up first we've got an eight out of ten eight spots going to be David R. It's two color patch there and it is a Walker Bueller for the Dodgers. Nice Walker Dodgers there. Um Drew you could say that obviously if you want to go for a one of one yeah no doubt they are harder pulls though. Next we have four out of five four spot is Ammo D. Oh look at that patch. Four color there. That's going to be a Vladigrero. Wow Vlad senior on that. Four of five. Vladimir Guerrero. Four colored patch. Box number three. Just one to go now on the next break. Awesome. One spot left. Closer Mojo. Vladidady. We've got nine out of ten. Nine spot William K. Three color there and that's going to be a Jonathan India. Nice. Nine of ten on that one. Three colored patch. I think we have a redemption here. Again if this is not specified that it is a one of one it will be random to all. Let's see. Here we see dynasty autograph patch cards. So again this will be random to everyone did not specify that's a one of one of Yattie Molina for the Cardinals. Dynasty autograph patch card of Yattie Molina will be random to all at the end. Last box. This last one is two out of five. Two spot that is Jonathan L. It's going to be a Ozzy Albies. Wow look at that. That's sick. Autograph batting glove relic card. Nice. Braves Ozzy Albies. All right give me one second real quick here to set up the random all ten names whatever names on top after the random will take home the Yattie Molina dynasty autograph patch card redemption. Eight times. Good luck everyone. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Going to David R. Congrats David on that one. All right y'all that will do it for number 41. We've got number 42 coming right up.


NCSSM would like to welcome you to the 42nd annual convocation. We'd like to take a moment to acknowledge the diverse backgrounds of our NCSSM community. We want to recognize that inclusivity is something that our school celebrates and strives to maintain. So I'd like to ask you to take a moment to think about your role in supporting all members of our school community. Thank you. Please keep this in mind as we embark on this coming school year. And now the National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance will be performed by Graham Aughton. Please stand and join in the National Anthem. O say can you see by the dawn's-earth What so proudly at the twilight's last gleaming Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave And join in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. I now welcome Chancellor Todd Roberts. Good afternoon, everyone. And I want to welcome everyone who's here as well as on the livestream to our 42nd Convocation for the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. Convocation signals the beginning of our school year, and we're very happy to have everyone in the classes of 2022 and 2023 and our residential and online classes here with us today to begin what is going to be, again, another unique year in our school's history. I'm so excited to have all of our residential students on campus and look forward to seeing many of our online students at the first residential weekend. I'm looking forward to working with all of you as we together navigate the challenges we will face this school year and seize the many opportunities that we have to make this a fantastic year. I not only want to thank all of our students for being here this afternoon, but I also thank our faculty and staff and our families and guests who have joined us for this virtual portion of our Convocation. I want to take this opportunity to welcome and thank our alumni Convocation speaker, Ms. Gina Lofton. Ms. Lofton is a member of NCSSM's class of 1983, our second graduating class. Her story is such an amazing example of what NCSSM is all about. Opportunity. She came to NCSSM from a town of approximately 500 people, and after NCSSM she earned her degree in electrical engineering and has gone on to an amazing career where she has been one of the top leaders in business and technology in our country. Gina exemplifies what is possible when one has talent, motivation, opportunity, and care for others. Just as you're here today, she was at NCSSM's third and fourth Convocations.  I'm pleased that we start each year with an address from an outstanding alumnus. One of the things that I've found so special about NCSSM is the fond memories alumni have of their school and their willingness to give back to it. I'm looking forward to Gina sharing her story and insights with us today and providing all of you with that chance to dream about the possibilities that are yours to achieve in the years that lie ahead. Each school year we have a chance to write the next chapter in the NCSSM story. We can all look forward to the many possibilities a new year brings just as the many classes before you have. Here we are, all of us, more than 1,000 students in the classes, more than 1,100 students in the classes of 2022 and 2023 will be about to embark on a year where your story in many ways will be like no other. There's no question that last year was an extremely difficult one for all of us, whether at NCSSM or in your high schools across our state. I know that at NCSSM we have managed to live and learn through these challenges because of the amazing work of everyone in our community. All of our seniors in the class of 2022, you did an amazing job last year along with your classmates in the class of 2021 to help keep our community safe. You did everything we ask of you and more. And more importantly, you did everything we needed you to do because you wanted to keep each other and our entire campus community safe and allow us to have the best school year possible in spite of the tremendous challenges posed by the pandemic. Equally as important are our amazing staff and faculty who reinvented just about everything last year and again this year and adjusted as needed to provide a living and learning environment that I believe was as good or better than any place in our country last year. I wish we were all here together in person for convocation because all of you deserve a standing ovation. As we write the chapter for this year, it will thankfully be different than the last. We've planned for and feel really good that this school year will be more normal than not. The past few days have been a joy having all of our residential students back on campus together and over the next weeks and months juniors will be meeting new friends from all across our state and our seniors will be meeting not only friends in the junior class but some new friends in your own class in person for the first time. And let me tell you that makes me really happy. And while this year will be more like a normal school year at NCSSM we all know that it is not completely normal. The reason we can all be here together with confidence is because based on last year's experience we know that all of you will do the right thing for each other and for others in the community. You continue to prove this to us. The fact that 91% of our students are vaccinated and more than 90% of our employees are vaccinated shows that those in the NCSSM community understand and care about doing what's right for each other and what's needed to live and learn together safely in our community amidst of this terrible pandemic. For those of you who can but have not yet been vaccinated I would strongly encourage you to do so. Most importantly for your well-being but also for that of others. I am so very proud to be a part of the NCSSM community with all of you. Well, I cannot stand here and say that we will not have any cases of COVID-19 on campus this year nor can I say with any certainty that we will have less than we did last year but what I know I can say with certainty is that it will not be because of the lack of effort of all of us to do the things that will keep us the most safe. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you are doing and all you will do this school year to make sure we can be on campus together safely. What has been true for the classes at NCSSM pre-pandemic and now virtual or in person is that you're part of a community at NCSSM together with talented students from all over North Carolina. You'll be working with outstanding faculty and staff, you have the tremendous support of our state and the many friends of our school and although the people and the place may have changed throughout the years you will find that these are the key ingredients of which infinite possibilities are made. Just as was the case in those first classes where traditions were built that have been passed down over the decades since, over the past year we've had to do so many things differently and for the first time new traditions were started last year and I imagine that new ones will be created this year that will be a part of NCSSM decades hence. While we're again wearing masks this year I'm confident that this will not be something that exists forever but better utilizing our outdoor spaces will be something that we will continue to do and always try to improve upon. Thankfully we do not have the same physical distancing requirements in place this year in most cases but how we use technology to expand learning opportunities and break down the barriers that can exist between programs when they are totally based on space and place is something that we have done very effectively and will continue to look for new opportunities to do this. One thing I will say that I hope is here to stay is good hygiene and cleanliness. That's important not only for COVID, life in general. I hope that this is one of the things that we can all agree should be a part of our new normal and I look forward to this year to the many NCSSM traditions you will keep and those new ones that you will create. To this point in your life all of you have worked very hard to achieve success and lay the foundation for your future. Every student here today has a story to tell or you would not, a success story to tell or you would not be here. Not all of your stories are the same. You come from all over this great state representing 87 of our 100 counties and you bring with you a diversity of experiences that make you all different people and that's the beauty of this community. You're all different in many ways and you know so much from each other because of that but you also share much in common. You all share a commitment to learning being successful in school. You all have big dreams and a desire to accept the greater challenge. NCSSM is a place where each of you will write the next chapter in your story and collectively you will help us write the next chapter in the NCSSM story. The greatest thing about our school is the people. It's the community that we create together all of us that make this place special. However, community does not just happen we make it the way we want it to be what it needs to be. This year we have the ability to again create community on campus and virtually. I know the past year has been challenging with the inability to connect in person so I know that doing this this year may take some time for everyone to get comfortable being in person. I'm sure for many of you in our residential program the past few days you've been in this group you've been in an over a year so I'm impressed by your willingness to try and do.  For students in our online program I have always been amazed how you form such a close-knit community primarily virtually but I do know that the ability to connect on campus is a big part of you being a part of the NCSSM community and I'm thrilled that this year we will have residential weekends and the many other opportunities on campus for you to engage in person in the NCSSM community. I know that we have and will continue to talk about our community standards for safely navigating through the pandemic but we must also focus on our community values that make our school unique and special. The great strength of our school is its diversity. Our community brings students together from all across the state students of different races, ethnicities sexual orientation, genders and gender identities. Our diversity is both a great strength and a great opportunity. As I speak to alumni from across the decades I hear how living and learning and getting to know and be friends with people very different than they were was one of the most formative parts of their NCSSM experience. Being a diverse community provides the opportunity for meeting people from different backgrounds or perspectives but being an inclusive community provides the opportunity to really get to know one another through listening, learning seeking to understand and valuing one another. Being an inclusive community one where each member feels that they belong is core to who we are as a school community. I'm proud of the work on diversity, equity and inclusion our school is doing and look forward to what each of you brings to our community and how you will help in our continued efforts to best support each other this year. Community does not just happen we work to make it what we want it to be. Whether it's the great effort of so many to create the NCSSM experience in the midst of a pandemic or our work on diversity, equity and inclusion these are not isolated efforts but all are part of how we can create the living and learning environment that inspires each of us to be better no matter the circumstances and all of us together to be better than we would be otherwise. As has been the case for the past 41 years those in the NCSSM community have always worked to maintain the NCSSM experience that has been so formative for so many over the years. This has enabled students whether from the classes of 1982 1992 or 2022 to meet and talk about their shared NCSSM experience even though it was not the same exact experience and for all of you that will be more true than most any previous class. But the great thing about this community over the years has been our ability to understand what about the NCSSM experience is special and hold true to that while also understanding how to meet the needs of students in the time that they're here. So while elements of the NCSSM experience are timeless and shared among and across classes what makes it is not. That it's up to you what you and we will all do together this year will help define your NCSSM experience and add to the rich history of our school. Understanding this and how it exists and evolves over time is not only important for how you will all help make your experiences this year next but also for how we will continue to establish what this experience will be for students faculty and staff on our campus in Morganton. This time next year the first class of students on our Morganton campus will be a part of convocation. As we continue hiring new faculty and staff for the NCSSM Morganton and taking the next steps in planning the program for living and learning on that campus we have the unique and exciting opportunity to continue the NCSSM story by writing the very first chapter in the NCSSM Morganton story. Members of the class of 2022 and 2023 we're so excited that you can all be together on campus this year and all of us at NCSSM are excited for the year ahead. I know that over the past few days you've been provided with a lot of information and may be overwhelmed at this point but I hope that you're enjoying the start of the school year and looking forward to what's ahead. There is no way we would be here on campus prepared for this school year without the amazing job on everyone on team NCSSM who works here. I cannot name everyone but let me assure you it has taken everyone for us to be here and well-prepared for a fantastic school year. Despite the challenges, uncertainty, anxiety, fear and ever-changing conditions everyone on team NCSSM has been truly extraordinary in their efforts to get us to where we are today as we begin the academic year. I'm so grateful and thankful to their work and commitment and I know that all of you in the classes of 2022 and 2023 join me in saying thank you. So as we begin this year we must remember that flexibility, grace and understanding as it was last year will continue to be so important to our success this year but it will be the personal responsibility that each of us takes for doing the right things that will be most important to our success. We are ours as a community that inspires each other to be our best no matter the circumstance and all of us together to be better than we would be otherwise. At this time I'd like to introduce NCSSM Student Government Association President Bonnie Zhang to provide remarks. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Welcome to NCSSM and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you here today. My name is Bonnie Zhang and I have the honor of serving as your student body president. Thank you again to Chancellor Roberts for all the contributions you have made to this school. It's amazing how your leadership and hard work has inspired countless others to use your lessons to advance our institution. Last but not least, thank you again to the audience for being here today. There are so many words and feelings each of us could use to describe the present atmosphere but here I want you to know you are not alone in any of your sentiments. First joining us, I'd like to welcome you again. I hope this is a day you have all been eagerly waiting for. For seniors like me, it's a day that many of us may have worried would not come. It's also a day that we have thought about since the minute we first started high school, the beginning of the home stretch. But to remind us of a quote by Ernest Hemingway, it is good to have an end to journey toward but it is the journey that matters in the end. Personally, it wasn't until after this past year that I started to see a bit of truth in the same. It wasn't until I noticed all the lessons I had learned from the pandemic in a half density hybrid school year that I started to believe, truly, that it is the journey that matters more than the end. I know that these past two semesters have challenged us to our core. The class of 22 was unwittingly tasked with one of the greatest trials. We were to build a community amongst us from up to 500 miles away. But even with this distance between us, we were able to not only make it through, we began to blaze our own path. I am so proud to be able to tell my family and friends what the students have done here at this school. From organizing our own virtual and in-person events to chartering clubs that promote self-care and mental health awareness to students here and in the NC community to creating petitions and advocating for our very own academic relief here at this very school. We were able to take our education and the needs of the entire student body into our own hands. Furthermore, we were able to build the strongest student community I have ever seen. What we have been able to accomplish this past year gives me the hope that we will continue to make the change that we want to see in our lives. For all the juniors here today, you took this same challenge on by applying to NCSM in the midst of this arduous time. Even with the limited resources and support you may have had during a pandemic year, you had the initiative to take the rockier path to choose an even greater challenge to the circumstances given to you. Now, I would like to shift our focus to the other half of Hemingway's quote to the end of this so-called journey. It feels a bit odd that we begin with the second half of this phrase before addressing the first, but on the contrary, I believe it is a very distinct example of how it is also okay to begin a journey without first knowing about the end. Some of us came here to NCSM with specific goals, while some of us came here with reasons that appear more abstract. My reasons for coming here were curiosity, passion, drive, but really what I wanted was independence. Your story will be different from mine, and that's one of many things I admire here about the people at NCSM. We have people here from different backgrounds, with different interests and different hobbies, but one thing I've noticed that brings us all together is our independence. Our independence is what drives us to discover and learn, and I hope that, especially to the new juniors, you will take this opportunity to explore new interests. I know that when I first arrived here, the awe I experienced during my first few weeks was the most prominent feeling, something that I learned along the way many of us share. The feeling of being surrounded by people with a sense of drive, of passion, from STEM to the humanities to the myriad of arts, sports, and clubs we have here at NCSM. The sense of being belong here was overwhelming. The shocking and foreign-feeling belonging of being immersed in such an active community, it hit me the very first days I was here. Sometime during my junior year, I realized that a key part of my journey occurred outside the classroom. In the streets or around campus, through my interactions with the diverse array of people around me, I learned that each individual was a plethora of new stories and information, each shaped by their own unique experiences in life. Here, we have the opportunity to try new things, to learn about different backgrounds and experience different cultures as we continue down the path we make for ourselves. In many ways, this year is unlike any other. The road we will tread started out more unpaved than any before us. But with the struggles of the past pandemic year, also came a time for our school to restart its long life. Sadly, it provided the conditions for many of our traditions to disappear, but nevertheless, it left room for the new generation, us, to create our own. That's why I encourage each and every single one of you here today to get involved, to try something new, and to speak out for both your ideas and yourself. I urge you to keep your curiosity and to also learn the very history of the ground you stand on today. NCCSM provides us with an opportunity to get a head start on curating our individuality and learning in an environment where everybody else seeks to do the same. In all these ways, I discovered that each one of us here is unique, and it's our individual differences that make us the school we are today. This year, let's do our very best to make the school welcome to each and every person so that NCCSM can truly be at its best and brightest. Now speaking of best and brightest, please join me in welcoming our next speaker, our very own Vice Chancellor of Academic Programs, Katie O'Connor. Good afternoon. On behalf of academic programs, I'd like to welcome all of our residential and online students, our faculty, staff, families, and NCCSM friends. Gina Lofton is a graduate of the class of 1983. So exactly 40 years ago, she arrived as a junior in 1981 and listened to her convocation speaker on a similar day in August. And now I have the great privilege of introducing Gina to you as our 42nd convocation speaker. Brian Faircloth wrote a wonderful profile about Gina, and I hope you take the opportunity to read it on our NCCSM home page. I wanted to highlight a few parts of Gina's journey. It was Gina's guidance counselor at West Craven High School who told her about NCCSM. For a motivated and curious student like Gina, applying to NCCSM was a natural next step. She found out she was accepted when a positive decision letter arrived in the mail. She actually hid the letter for a few days. This opportunity had just become a reality and she had to pause because this was a very big decision. Gina's guidance counselor also received the notification. So hiding the letter did not make her acceptance a secret for very long. Gina mentioned it was hard to leave grandparents who were filling you with nothing but love. Not only did her grandparents love her, but they gave her the best advice. Advice that our juniors and seniors can benefit from today. They said to her, you're ready, you're okay. Gina realized that having such a loving and supporting family means they don't need to be with you all the time for you to still feel their love and support. Gina knew she had everything she needed to be successful at NCCSM, so she said yes and went on to be fearless. Gina spent 30 years in the tech industry and is best known for her ability to bring people together to achieve results. During her time at IBM, she lived and worked in the United States, England, France, Australia, Japan, China, Brazil, and Singapore. Gina was a researcher, a developer, a consultant, and even accepted projects she wasn't sure she'd be successful at because she never let fear stop her. She went on to lead thousands as an IBM executive and recently retired as the Chief Technology Officer for Microsoft. Gina published works addressing topics of how artificial intelligence can help mental health among veterans, the true value of data for government, and how open source can bring agencies to the cloud. She continues to live a life with the values set forth by her family, the values of integrity, courage, respect, being responsible, writing an example, and giving to others. Gina has never stopped giving back to others. She is on the board of the Museum of Life and Science in Durham and previously served on the boards of the George Mason Research Foundation and Rise Against Hunger, and we are fortunate to have her on our NCSSM Foundation Board of Directors as well. Her grandparents were absolutely correct. She was okay, and she was more than ready. Please help me in welcoming your convocation speaker, Gina Lofton. Wow, thank you for that. Well, wow, 40 years amazing. I don't know if I was ready for them to tell you all about the dude and the numbers. But thank you, Todd and Katie and Bonnie. And good afternoon, Science and Math Family. I'm just excited to be back home on campus and to be able to celebrate the start of a new academic year. I can hardly believe 40 years ago I was a junior here. It's wonderful to see how the campus changed and how the vision was realized because many of these buildings were just artist renderings on the wall when I was here. To the juniors, welcome to the experience of a lifetime and to the seniors, welcome back. You get to serve as a symbol of what's possible for their journey. And the juniors will be looking to you to set the tone on the campus about our traditions, especially about our tradition of service. I was a part of a great experiment. When I was here, there was, we were a part of the vision and the hope of what some amazing leaders believed that STEM education in North Carolina could be. It's so wonderful to see that they were right. In addition to a world-class STEM curriculum, we had arts and programs. I remember art and photography with Jolyle's African Dance with Madame Chabaz, writing short stories and poetry. I was encouraged to not only figure out how to be the great next scientist or the next generation of scientists, but who I was as a person and who I was as a creative. And we, they knew that we would be global leaders. They knew that we would be humanitarians and they knew that we would also be philanthropists. I came to an NCSSM from a small town, if you've heard, outside of Newburn, North Carolina called Cove City. I felt awkward when I arrived here. I didn't know what to expect. I struggled a bit to find my way, so you might also be feeling like that in your junior year. But I found some interest. I had played softball back at home and so I pitched and played third base. I found some friends. I found some other interests. And we were on this journey together, a unique journey together. We all came from different backgrounds, but we were just 15 and 16-year-olds who had been number one and two at our home schools. And now we were surrounded by nothing but excellence. And I would learn the greatness of surrounding yourself by excellence and the passion that you have when you're finally challenged. It's a great experience. My curiosity was encouraged. My confidence was built. And by the senior year, unlucky for some, I had also found my voice. You have the opportunity to work with some of the most amazing professors in the world. And you're going to be surrounded by great talent who are going to be, like you, the next generation of scientists and engineers and philosophers. And that's an opportunity to hear different views. An opportunity to talk about complex and sensitive topics. An opportunity to have healthy debate and discourse around important topics. And many of those important topics you've seen that we've had to have over the last couple of years for sure. We still have some important conversations to have, and they can be uncomfortable around the digital divide still exists, although we've made some progress. Access to education and healthcare and financing and opportunity isn't equally distributed still. There's important conversations about race and gender that we all still have to have, and I know you will lean into. There's been progress. But coming, the graduating class of NCSSM comes with that privilege and a platform, and I'm hoping that all of you will use that. In my two years, I found courage. I found I was willing to leap into the unknown and belief that I could figure it out. Of everything I learned and experience at science and math being a risk taker would serve me best throughout my life. After leaving science and math, I went to North Carolina A&T State University and majored in electrical engineering. It was actually a chance meeting with Dr. Ronald McNair, one of the first black astronauts who led me to my time at A&T. My physics teacher was Dr. Manring. He had made physics come to life, and he also talked about electrical engineering. So listen to your teachers. They know a little something about what you can do in the future. They have some insights.  Building on my science and math traditions, the traditions of A&T and changing the world, and I followed my passion. I leaned into every opportunity, some of which were research as an undergraduate, or co-op assignments, or internships at TRW and IBM. I studied things and worked on projects like satellites and submarines and conversational speech technologies, all areas that I would continue to explore when I left college. After college, I went off to IBM, and I leaned into international assignments early in my career. I had the opportunity, as you heard, to go to other countries to work. I had roles in research and engineering, and corporate technology and sales and consulting and mergers and acquisitions. It wasn't that I couldn't keep a job. I just like to do a lot of things. That critical thinking skill that I learned at science and math and at A&T underpinned my success in all of those roles. My engineering degree had quite literally taken me around the world. I kept a journal in my time at science and math, something that I would advise you to do. I would be interested to look back over the years. In that journal, I had written down 20 places that I wanted to visit once I left high school. My time at IBM took me to over 40. Sometimes I had the opportunity to live there, sometimes just long assignments, sometimes just long visits. I had reminded myself when I looked at that journal that that little girl who arrived here 40 years ago wanted to do science that changed the world. In order to do that, she had to go see the world. I had a great career at IBM, and then another amazing place came calling. You may have heard of it, Microsoft. I joined Microsoft in 2019, and I was the Chief Technology Officer for the U.S. business. I was drawing to the mission of empowering people and enterprises to achieve more. I also knew the importance of representation. I was not just a corporate executive. I was a woman in tech, and I was a black woman in tech. And that was an important representation to be a person in a Chief Technology Officer role in those representations. Over the last two years that I experienced, over the last two years in Microsoft, they've experienced historic growth. You might be reading about it. We set revenue records. We set records for the valuation in the company. It's not a coincidence that aligns with my time there. I'm just saying. Well, I'm proud of my career. It's not the titles or the promotions or the global teams that I led that make me most proud. Some of the things that I'm most proud of are the ways that I did get to change the world. Unfortunately, I lost my mom to breast cancer in 1999, and today that would be a form of cancer that could be treated. And so for the last 20 years, I've been helping organizations, especially healthcare organizations, work on solutions that would help with early diagnosis and personalized treatment plans to serve as an assistant or advisor to doctors and oncologists so somebody else's mom could get to come home. Using AI to help those struggling, especially our men and women in service with PTSD and mental health, to be able to use apps and bots to help them understand how to manage their depression. Or the work that I got to do with building cognitive toys so children with developmental or learning delays could advance. To give them the joy of achievement that all of us have experienced and probably have taken for granted for so long. Or being a diversity, equity, and inclusion leader and a sponsor using my voice in my platform to improve access to health care and financing and technology to help bridge the digital divide, to create programs around financial literacy so people could get digital skills and move to having generational wealth. Or to create opportunities and helping others to successfully navigate a corporate career. My wish for you.  I know what it's like to have those dreams come true. I know what it's like to be that awkward kid who blossoms into a global leader. I know what it's like to build other leaders. My wish for you is that you get to know that too. You are a part of a powerful networking community that is active and influential in business circles and in communities almost everywhere your career path will take you. When you graduate, you will be among alumni that are successful and sought after because of the high quality education and integrity. I look forward to welcoming you as an active member of that community. Enjoy all that lies ahead.  In closing, I leave you with this. Be curious. This is an exciting time in your life, a time when you have opportunity to meet new people, have new experiences, learn new things, embrace the exploration of new ideas, challenge beliefs, ask very hard questions about life, about technology, about people, always thinking about what's next and how you can make it better. This will serve you well. Be courageous. Take on challenges that might change you or the world. Use your privilege and your platform to help others. Don't ever miss the chance to hold a door of opportunity open or to speak for those who might feel invisible or underserved. Have the courage to lead and serve with respect and empathy and integrity. Be a critical thinker. Challenge ideas and assumptions and always be open to the fact that what you see or believe may not be the entire picture. There is always a layer deeper that can be better, that can better inform your understanding. Look for it. But most importantly, have some fun. This journey we call life is not just about the accolades of the promotions or the titles or even the money. It's about the joy along the journey.  It's about the lives that you're going to touch along the way and it's about the friends that you're going to make here and along the way that are going to become like family. So class of 2022 and 2023, welcome to the NCSSM family. I look forward to seeing how all of you go out and change the world. We want to share with you. So happy that you mentioned you had a class with Joe Lyles. We wanted to share with you. This is a Joe Lyles print that he's done. And so we want to give this to you. And again, thank you so much for speaking with us today and sharing your story. We very much appreciate that. And so just for everybody to see. So as we close our 42nd Convocation, I want to take a moment to thank everyone who planned our event today. And a special thanks to Evan Rowe, Joyce Ventimiglia, Jeff Hattley, for your fantastic tech support. Thank you to our Corral, Mr. Seigan, and Ms. Perez, Rebecca and Graham, for your music today. And thank you to our student leaders, Bonnie and Caroline, for your remarks. You guys were great. And I really appreciate you doing that. And then a huge thank you to Dr. O'Connor, Dr. Tici, Ms. Miller, and Ms. Garrison for all of your work in planning today's events. Thank you all. And once again, I want to thank our faculty and staff for your amazing work and dedication to providing the very best for our students and each other, no matter the circumstance. So as we start the school year, it's always filled with excitement with the possibilities that come starting anything new. And for me, the start of this year will be most rewarding understanding what so many people have done to make it possible to have our students back on campus and to try and provide the most normal year possible and times that are certainly far from normal.  Every school year brings with it challenges and opportunities, and we certainly know that this will be no different. And this year we'll present you with different ones. It'll also present you with those new and different opportunities. What you make of them will both not only define your year, but will help you grow and learn as you prepare for next year and the many years ahead of you. Every member of our faculty and staff are here to help you succeed, and you will find that there are no more amazing and committed professionals anywhere. It is your commitment, however, more so than any other thing. I encourage you to take advantage of the many opportunities you'll find here at NCSSM. Explore your interests, grow your passions, strive for your best by helping those around you be better. This year will be unique, and have its challenges no doubt, but it's also filled with the possibilities of what you and we will make of it together. And I look forward to you to the year ahead with you. After convocation Ms. Lofton will be available in the ETC Lobby for those who want to come meet her and hear more about her amazing life and career. And now we will close convocation with our chorale led by Mr. Seigan and Ms. Perez singing our Alma Mater. So thank you all again for being here this afternoon, and let's make this year fantastic, and go Unis!