Since moving to california, I have done about 15 events for
St. Jude Children"s Research Hospital. Speaking mostly to college students, I have traveled to Northern California, Nevada, and east to various parts of Arizona in addition to many events here in Southern California. Below are most of the topics that I discussed with my audiences. If a particular topic interests you, click on "
read ± " to read the summary. Learn and Enjoy!
November, 2002: "I am invincible." read ±
Speaking to about 250/300 college students at the University of California - San Diego.
Our days of youth, especially for college students, are characterized by our invincibility complex. A naitivty exacerbated by a self-indulgent "Me first, and the gimme gimmies" sentiment. I once blindly subscribed to this same sentiment. I was nineteen, going on twenty, had a four-point-oh average, was partying four or five nights a week, playing drums, dating girls, and life was good. I was invincible.
So I described the day to day perils of a child that deals with chemicals, radiation, disability, and death. How I once thought of cancer as a story in someone elses life, not in mine. I wanted them to take a moment, and think, that tomorrow it could all change.
That night, as I stood in front of hundreds of students, it was imperative that I express my gladness. Smiling from ear to ear, I let them know how impressed I was by their thinking of others before themselves, and that life is wonderful.
December 2002: "A Recursive Community: The Kharma of Giving." read ±
Speaking to about 25 adult business community leaders.
St. Jude was pitching a fundraiser known as "Dream Home" to a board of community leaders. The project is a raffle of a beautiful home that requires donations from many sectors of industry including real estate, contractors, media, and service, and it was my job to impassion them.
I told them how the local Memphis Community comes together for the children of St. Jude. And that a large part of my healing from the difficulties of cancer and it's treatment was that care and concern from the community. As the business leaders of San Diego, they heard what I had to say, and they knew what they had to do.
December 2002: "Sacrificing Selfishness." read ±
Speaking to about 15 students at California State University- Fresno.
Hopped on a small commuter plane, bound for fresno. My first time being flown somewhere to speak. It was supposed to be another large group of college students.
December means that students are finishing up for the semester and escaping to the nostalgic confines of home. The campus was dark. The auditorium was locked. The stale air gave the illusion of an abandoned settlement and forty minutes of waiting managed to muster us an open door, an accessable auditorium, light, sound, and a trickle of students.
I looked around, fighting my inclination towards disappointment, and thanked the few students that came. Explaining that their sacrifice is what enables St. Jude to children's lives, children like me. And as I looked out at those 12 or so smiling faces, I began to smile. They were teaching me, too. Overwhelmed with sentiment, I commended them and told them how proud I was of them.
On a night when all the other students could not be bothered, they showed broader character. A character that seperates them from the peers that weren't sitting next to them.
February 2003: "Wonder: Getting Through to Mistra Know It All" read ±
Speaking at a luncheon mixed crowd of professors from the University of California, San Diego.
The most impactual part of this day was not so much my speech per sae, but the events that surrounded it. I spoke at a cafe on the UCSD campus to a collection of professors. Ah, academica.
Under escort, i stepped into a sunken room cafe. Chaffing dishes aligned the wall to my left, at the end of which was a twelve by twelve stageset. The rest of the room was filled with eight foot round tables that were dressed and set.
Table by table, I introduced myself to to the students and their professors. Many of them received me with typical academic aloofness, but that was about to change. My plan - not to reveal that I was the event's keynote in hope to illustrate the way people lose sight sometimes.
By the time the MC called my name, You could hear a whispering murmur blanket the room as I stood and turned towards the stage. "Can ya'll here me alright," I asked, sheilding my eyes from the spotlight. You should have seen those professors when I finished speaking. They got into a line to shake my hand.
February 2003: "What's Your Story? Morning's Glory!" read ±
Speaking ON-AIR for a St. Jude "Country Cares" Radiothon.
On a grey day, i made my way, off the eight interstate, to the border(s) books. The Country Cares national radio campaign was broadcasting across the country in support of the children of St. Jude and I had a chance to tell my story.
My task was simple. I had to make an impression and move my audience to pick up the phone and call, despite the the headache of rushhour traffic on their way to work. It was imperitive that I explain to them that they make a real difference.
I sat down behind the cheaper "guest" microphone, and put on the headphones. Tony & Chris, the two DJ's introduced me on-air, and said "Go ahead, Michael. Tell us your story." I leaned into the microphone, and said, "Hello, San Diego. My name is Michael Swart. And The reason you are hearing my voice is because St. Jude Children's Research Hospital saved my live. How are you today?"
March 2003: "Living in the Now: Allocating Attention." read ±
Speaking to about 250/300 college students at the University of California - San Diego.
It was the first time that I had ever spoken to the same group for two seperpate occasions. Which meant I couldn't tell them the same story, teach the same lesson, or even use the same jokes. Another family from St. Jude had just finished speaking to the students and everyone already had lumps in their throats. Elizabeth was only four and her father spoke on her behalf. She was four, beautiful, and with brittle bone disease, had become a crawling machine thanks to St. Jude.
When I walked up onto the stage, the house lights blarred, and I squinted to see the dark, backlit audience. I said, "Hi, for those of ya"ll who don't know me, my name is Michael Swart," and then I paused. Looking down in front of the stage, I watched Elizabeth, a girl who the doctors at other hospitals said would not live, scoot her bottom across the floor. She looked up at me, and I looked back at her, and we both smiled.
"What is beautiful about life, is right now" "Basking in the beauty of it at every second. Enjoying the gift of every moment. Paying attention." Time"s greatest gifts are opportunity and experience. The chance to do and the chance to learn. Harvest every opportunity and treasure every experience. We have the blessings to do so.
May 2003: "The interdependent dichotomy of capacity and ability." read ±
Speaking to about 50 professionals at an Auto Trader Golf Tournament Benefitting SJCRH.
It was an aridly hot day in Phoenix, Arizona. AutoTrader.com was hosting a golf tournament at The Ravenwood to benefit the hospital. They wanted me to say a few words.
When I arrived, the foursomes were dispersing. Four hours later, the groups trickled into the food tent and began corralling, so I took to watching. It was like a time warp back to the school cafeteria. People entering and exiting the lunch-line, stutter-stepping as they surveyed the seating area, looking for and open table with some familiar faces to sit with.
These were the business members of the community, typically networking through golf, and it was my job to remind them of their capacity to take initiative- and their ability to do so.
Golf is a personal game. Doing well has to do with synchronizing what you know theoretically with what you do physically. This is capacity, what you are capable of doing, and ability, or your actual performance. Life in a way is about our efforts to match our abilities with our capacities. Taking time to raise money for catastrophically ill children is a wonderful way to keep your capacity and ability on even par.
October 2003: "Productivity: Proliferating Your Passion's Pursuits" read ±
Speaking to about 250/300 college students at the University of California - San Diego.
Here I was again, speaking to the College Students at UCSD. Only this time, there was a freshman-new crew.
I started with my story. That quieted them down. I could see eyes widen and glances become gazes. They were listening now, so I asked, "What do ya'll do in your down time?" They sat silent.
Since being out of school, I had learned a number of lessons. One lesson that i was focusing on, and still am, was the relationship between my down-time and my up-time. Since I pursue a number of entrepeneurial endeavors ranging from art & design to playing music to video shorts, the time that i had when I got home from work was critical for me to complete my other work. Things like maintaining my website, designing collaterals for a non-profit, and shooting and editing my film-shorts were full time jobs themselves.
I have met a number of successful people, many of them through St.Jude. People whose work fuses with their passion and are often the envy of many. In meeting them, i noticed that they were all driven individuals. Driven individuals whose down-time was their up-time too. That night, these students used their down-time to come and raise money for the children. I told them how glad I was that they could make it 'up'.
October 2003: "Taj Mahal: Tomorrow may not be your day!" read ±
Speaking to about 150/200 college students at the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obisbo.
When I first returned to college while on chemotherapy, I made a mistake. I expected that people in their youth with good health whould be appreciative for the inherent gifts of life. I wanted them to realize the value of taking a deep breath or standing up straight. To pay respect to the fragility of life. But they didn't. In fact, they were the opposite. They used their good health as a safety deposit against irresponsible and reckless behavior. I was discouraged, but soon I learned to appreciate this fact as the nature of youth.
What I could do was empower these students through their naitivity, make them aware of the fact that I once sat where they sat and thought like they thought.
As I walked around the room of one-hundred fifty or so students, I listened and I learned. I inivited an open discussion about my experiences, and volunteered points that I thought would impact them as I continued to stroll around the room. That in the matter of a moment, my whole life was changed by cancer. I encouraged them to let their guard down, and take a day to help the lives of children at St. Jude, because tomorrow may not be your day.
October 2003: "Restructuring Obligation into Belief" read ±
Speaking to about 40 College Students at the University of Nevada- Las Vegas.
The University
When I was a patient at St. Jude, undergoing two and a half years of chemo therapy, I was able to sleep each night under a roof, my new home, because the community in Memphis, Tennessee had come together in building The Target House.
At the Target House, I was able to deal with the difficulties of cancer and it's treatment. I was able to live in a community of care and concern that bolstered my response and is a big part of that reason that I could dream gleefully about being here today. That was my dream home. Imagine the way that the community here in San Diego could help someone elses dreams.
February 2004: "Non-Academia: The Cross-Mojonation of Intuition and Faith" read ±
Speaking to a select group of professors at the University of California, San Diego.
To a proposed board of community leaders, St. Jude was pitching a fundraiser known as "Dream Home". This project requires donations from many industries including real estate, contractors, media, and service.
When I was a patient at St. Jude, undergoing two and a half years of chemo therapy, I was able to sleep each night under a roof, my new home, because the community in Memphis, Tennessee had come together in building The Target House.
At the Target House, I was able to deal with the difficulties of cancer and it's treatment. I was able to live in a community of care and concern that bolstered my response and is a big part of that reason that I could dream gleefully about being here today. That was my dream home. Imagine the way that the community here in San Diego could help someone elses dreams.
March 2004: "Identity: Pre-sciption vs. Sub-scription" read ±
Speaking to about 350 College Students at the University of California, San Diego.
There was a girl at the "Country Cares" radiothon. She was very bright and beautiful. I asked her name. I gave her mine.
I did my best to smoothly stir conversation, but I quickly realized something. She talked predominantly about herself, and in resume format nonetheless, and it made me think about Medical School.
You see, when I was in school, I remember the realization that someday the majority of the doctor population would be my age. It made me think about the different people that I knew who aspired to be doctors, and which one#&39;s would I consider as "going to be good" doctors. You come to realize that some people want to go to medical school because of the idea of being a doctor. This I call a prescription (pre-scribe, i.e. write beforehand). "Pre"scribing our identities is to base it on "pre"conceived notions- hollow foundations that are devoid of experience. Then there are those other students that are simply passionate about healing people. This I call "sub"scription (sub-scribe, i.e. write afterhand). When we "sub"scribe our identities, we are participants in what we believe in. Always be you.
March 2004: "Ill-preparedness: Protecting the Flock" read ±
Speaking to about 100 College Students at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
I picked through the finger sandwhiches in the hotel lobby as I waited for the St. Jude rep to pick me up. I really wanted the ham and cheese ones. I was trying to avoid the turkey cause I had to speak, and, with the tryptophan and all.
While I waited, the front desk clerk asked me about me. When I told her that I was a public speaker, she told me about how her son was doing forensics in school, he was only eleven, and he was very good. Very prepared, good poise, and good projection. He was the favorite to win the county tournament, but then she lamented about how he failed to even enter.
She explained that he had gotten cold feet the day of the finals and decided not to speak. When I told the U of A students this story, I told them that it reminded me of me. The day that I got sick, I thought I was prepared. But like her son, I got cold feet and wasn't really prepared for my battle with cancer. Luckily for me, St. Jude was. Help them always be prepared.
May 2004: "Lifting burdens and Bringing Focus" read ±
Speaking to about 50 Professionals at the Ravenwood Golf Club in Pheonix, Arizona.
To a proposed board of community leaders, St. Jude was pitching a fundraiser known as "Dream Home". This project requires donations from many industries including real estate, contractors, media, and service.
When I was a patient at St. Jude, undergoing two and a half years of chemo therapy, I was able to sleep each night under a roof, my new home, because the community in Memphis, Tennessee had come together in building The Target House.
At the Target House, I was able to deal with the difficulties of cancer and it's treatment. I was able to live in a community of care and concern that bolstered my response and is a big part of that reason that I could dream gleefully about being here today. That was my dream home. Imagine the way that the community here in San Diego could help someone elses dreams.
