Maya Speaks... (Kind of like Martha Speaks on PBS, but better!)

Hi-ya brother,

            Okay. So, everyone tells you college is filled with new opportunities and you have to embrace the opportunities and blah blah blah blah blah. Right? Well, if they haven’t told you yet—they will your senior year of college. I know you’re similar to me, so you will probably just nod your head and agree as you store the information in the useless side of your brain, BUT if you are going to choose to listen to only one person say that? I hope you will choose to listen to me say it because I am sitting here in Regents commons area thinking about just how true that is right this very second. This past week I had the opportunity of a lifetime. Cheesy, but true. (And if you’re already rolling your eyes and calling me a cheese-ball you better prepare yourself because this particular blog is practically Winslow grilled cheese material. Have I mentioned that in Winslow grilled cheeses have a 3 cheese-slice minimum?)

So, as I was saying, this past week I had the opportunity of a lifetime. I mean, how many people get the chance to hear from a poet/writer with 80 doctorates? How many people get the chance to hear an 83-year-old woman say “hey! YO!”?  How many people get the chance to see Maya Angelou speak FOR FREE?

          Do you want to know the answer? Not many. THAT is the answer, not many people get that opportunity, but I did. And that is why you should listen when I say that college has some of the coolest opportunities.

We were stoked to see her!

            First, the facts: Wednesday night (a couple of weeks back—my blog posting is a bit slow because of school work) Maya Angelou came to the CFSB center at 8 o’ clock to speak to basically whoever wanted to come. She spoke for about thirty-five minutes, and then rushed right back onto her ginormous RV. She could barely walk onto the stage without help, but her voice dominated the basketball center (Arena? Court? Field? Rink? Track?)

My Maya-Seeing Buddies :)

            Maya came out and sat in this rocking chair by a table filled with books that she had written, and the ENTIRE gym fell completely silent. Barely anyone let out so much as a sigh as the room filled with a thick layer of respect. That alone was enough to tell you what kind of woman we were dealing with, but when that lady opened her mouth, I think even the most prepared people were blown away.  Okay, Okay. I am not going to ooze about how phenomenal she was because I know you will skim my letter (I’m onto you, Josh :P). However, I would like to tell you a little bit of what she said that I really liked. You SHOULD find this this interesting, I mean, she DID say hey-yo…not typical of an 83-year-old.

A list of things that Maya said/did that made me laugh/smile:

---“You’re in this institution so you can ‘bloop’ drop this tote bag of ignorance” (She was talking about Murray State, and why we are here. She actually motioned chucking a bag on the ground and made funny sound effects. A natural HI-er. I laughed :P)

My photography skills were definitely lacking on Maya night,
but I tried my best....I swear, it's Maya! 

---“I don’t care if they’re serious or not, they’re boring as hell”

---“ I know A LOT, but I don’t have to know everything”

            Maya kept emphasizing the impact that we could make on those around us by saying, “Hope that you’re able to grow up and say ‘I am a rainbow in someone’s cloud’”.  Her whole speech was about that concept of putting rainbows in other people’s clouds, and it made me think of that thing Max always says about how he is filling up my bucket when he gives me a hug. She said, “Here you are to change the world, to make it a better place for those that are yet to come, “ and I thought that was SO awesome. She really emphasized that we need to pay attention to the world around us and refuse to be ignorant. She was awesome.  College opportunities > Black Ops.

Love J

Maddie “wanttobemaya” Mucci