BY ASHLEY ALLWOOD
Terrence Talley, a professional public speaker, accompanied by the band 10 Talents comes to Wadsworth High School to share the message of “Don’t Give Up” and to not be afraid to reach out for help.
Talley’s goal is to give hope to students that are drowning in their emotions.
Talley travels around the country to hundreds of schools to spread the message. He started speaking out to students when he was in college about 7 years ago. Talley was inspired to start speaking to schools because when he was in high school there was a speaker that came to his school who was a football player, but Talley never played sports in high school, so he could not quite connect with the message.
At the assembly, Talley shared stories about himself and other students about things that happened to him. For example, he told a story from when he was younger and raced his older brother. His brother bet him $100 that he could not beat him. He was so determined to beat his brother that when he was running up the giant hill, he pushed himself to not give up.
He ended up winning the $100 and the glory of beating his older brother. Talley later on began to talk about students that were drowning in their emotions and feel they have no hope.
“If I ever get the opportunity, I want to speak to someone like me, the person that’s sitting in the corner and solemn,” said Talley.
Talley receives many stories and letters that he does not always have time to share all of them so he decided to put them all in a book so others can know they are not alone. His goal for writing the book was so students could read the stories of others that are struggling with the same issues. The book shares the stories of struggle and how they recovered.
The book is called “Secrets Revealed: YOUR Story”. Talley’s book is now published and sold on Amazon ranked #1 in its category of Self-Help sold around the country.
“I was sitting there like damn, I can’t tell everyone’s story from a stage but I could try to use my platform and I just want to give it away and I want other students to be able to share their story,” said Talley.
Along with Talley’s motivational speech, the band, 10 Talents, performed for Wadsworth students. They shared a song with the school called “Don’t Let Go” about one of their good friends that suffered from wanting to give up on his life. In the song, it shares the motivation to keep holding on when times are tough. Talley does not always travel with a band, but Talley shared that he very much enjoys when they are there with him because it makes it easier to speak with the kids.
