Reggie Dabbs at Corbin Middle School

[Music] do [Music] do don't [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] today mr dabbs but i think he's going to share most of that information about himself himself all i really needed to know is one sentence here his mission says i believe as i'm sure all of us do that our community's greatest assets are not the school building but the students themselves so that tells me everything i need to know about a speaker and why they're here for us today so join me in welcoming mr dabbs to the [Applause] [Music] stage hey how's everybody doing look she did really good i'm not that professional here it is my name richard i just got you out of class everybody clapped [Applause] kentucky so we say hi different i'm from south florida so do me a favor let me show you how look at somebody left to right stare him in the eye just say all right all right all right turn the reverse on the other side of me do it again say all right all right all right all right everybody one more time look at a teacher by you and say all right all right all right all right i gotta make fun of a teacher sir stand up right now look at the students and say all right all right all right give him a hand y'all [Applause] [Music] is there anybody in the 8th grade 8th grade hey look at me before i do this you may want to plug your ears sixth grade [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and don't worry it'll go down when you get older you'll be like to convince you to listen to me so here's what i do my middle school brothers and sisters i'm going to give you the meaning of life right here right now there are two things in life you must always remember let's get started number one always remember this boys and girls are different boys and girls are different i'ma give them all to you right now if i'm right clap for me if i'm wrong don't boo me if you whoop me i'll come over there and sit on you and your mama never see you again all right some of you are like ooh let's do it it'll be fun no it won't first thing will happen it'll be an eclipse every day go dark all right after that all you want to hear is like you gone next thing you'll see is jesus buddha or muhammad saying from hold my child it'll be over all right so here we go boys and girls are different number one let's start easy if one girl got to go to the bathroom two girls get to go with him clap your hands today [Applause] oh by the way let me explain i'll explain you know why that's true you ain't never seen a brother jump up in math class and go oh i gotta go hey [Music] number two boys and girls are different listen i'm just gonna tell you anybody ever notice women sneeze pretty women like [Music] if a brother sees you better run and women cry pretty men cry ugly when a brother really cries it's like [Applause] women can drive cars better than men clap your hands better man why are you doing you in the eighth grade you got a bicycle shut up okay i'll come up here i'll belly flop you i mean it goes like this a woman got a brand new car oh did you hear that a woman got a brand new look hey let's wrap this one let's wrap this one a woman got a brand new car she really can't drive very far she forgot to put gas in a car now brother wants to steal her car a woman will wreck her car to save a cat running across the road a man will wreck his car trying to kill that sucker running across the [Applause] your neighbor you know what road saying you bro number four i'm sorry number four i forgot where i was in this room ever get up in the morning and get your toothbrush and your toothpaste and go to put it in your mouth and the toothpaste falls off girls what do you do girls watch it out of the seat get one two please start over boys what do we do scoop it up that's what we do come on let me hear all the brothers saying scoop it up who cares if your daddy shaved that pudding scoop it up anyway bro go to school you got hair on your teeth and nasty that's what you are number one boys and girls different clap your hands everybody [Music] number two now wait my middle school brothers and sisters before i do the meaning of life number two i must be honest with you and let you know we're going to play a game that's why i like 6th grade right there i thought we're going to play games 8th [Music] it's real simple everybody in this gym you got music that you listen to when you're going to school when you go home from school when you're at home from school you got music everybody likes music so we're gonna go down memory lane and play some of the songs you guys love now listen very carefully it's real simple all you have to do is listen to the verse when each soul gets to the chorus all you gotta do as an entire school is singing as loud as you can sing if you can't sing say any way because that's funny all right so now look everybody look at your neighbor and say you better say let each other there say i ain't playing with you it's cool everybody please welcome my friend dj marky mark he's right over there in the corner right there he's gonna help us out now here's why we listen to the verse and then sing the chorus just so you can know i'm not just a speaker i'm also a professional saxophone player and this is the saxophone so i'm playing first y'all singing chords are y'all ready everybody who needs your neighbors say so glad i'm not in class right now let's get this runner started go ahead marky mark get that person so number one i'm gonna give it to you bruno mars his head said you're amazing just the way you are we go [Music] hey [Music] hey [Music] [Applause] [Applause] tell them [Applause] okay put the nets out put your hand up go like this [Applause] [Applause] [Music] bye [Music] hey [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] if you got a cell phone in your pocket or in your backpack grab it grow fast because we're about to do something once you get your cell phone turn on the flashlight and put it up over your head like this pick the next one all right ready left right [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hey [Music] hey [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hey [Applause] [Applause] [Music] come on sing it live [Music] [Music] everybody come on [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] sam you know what [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] hmm [Music] bye [Music] you know there's someone sing it out for [Applause] me [Applause] [Music] [Applause] everybody don't stop [Applause] all right we gotta go slow motion everybody say hey hey [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] number two is just a phrase i'll say it to you you say it back to me everybody say this life is a roller coaster the direction i love roller coasters they go so fast it makes my back go backwards i'm skinny in here all right that's not a joke years ago i wrote the basketball across the world 120 miles an hour it went so fast i went blind my cheeks flew over my head like this i kept hearing this noise it was like i'm like what is that then i realized we going so fast my back is suffocating the girls in reality the girl was yelling but with my back and her face when i was in the ninth grade saying number eight my friends taught me to get on the roller coaster went upside down bro reggie you'll be going upside down if i go upside down people get hurt all right but how many of you anybody ever do something that you would never do by yourself but you did it because the people you hanging around talked you into it work i know what that's like that's what i'm telling this story listen no one told me this but i'm gonna tell you every now and then you got to be yourself you got to make your own choices everybody say be yourself give me the personal life beside you say be yourself nobody told me that you know what i did i looked at my friends and went i let's do this so we got all right look at wretched it went wrong no just right we went down the hill around the curb halfway through the loop upside down the right bro the brake strap we stopped up side down all my back is rolling toward my head i'm trying to push it down i can hear it on the new respectively and it got worse the girl in front of me she threw up and the wind was blowing in my direction i can't duck and if i could duck my belly button would give me my forehead some of you were like what does that have to do with like everything you know why some days you're on top of the hill and everything's great but some days you're going downhill so fast you just want to quit listen to me my brother never give up on the ride of life because they will fix the right but the only question is my sister is will you be on the right so the phrase of the day is never give up everybody say time to give up look at the person beside you say never give up answer that person and say all right all right all right if you glad i got you out of class clap your hands right now [Applause] [Music] hey all right [Applause] they said we want you to go to school if you got a brother or sister at the high school and they're attending in class then they saw me if your brother or sister are doing online they're watching right now okay so it's kind of cool that everybody gets to see this so let me explain they said reggie you got to tell the students who you are and where you're from so let's start with who i am i'm ready that was easy this is what i get to do i speak and the numbers big every year i speak to 1.5 million public school students face to face around the world cnn news the cnn news people they said i'm the number one communicator of the young people in the world and it's cool to be in corbin and it's cool to be at your middle school so clap for your principal for letting me come and be with you [Applause] [Music] everybody's saying who are you all right i'll tell you why i get to do the coolest thing ever there is a group or company called the national football game work i am a motivational speaker one of ten men for the national football thing which means all 32 teams at least here we speak twice every year but for the past 15 years i've been selected to speak to the two teams that make it to the super bowl so that's cool everybody's saying who are you okay nba basketball right i was the motivational speaker for the miami heat then i became the motivational speaker for the kill evelyn the cleveland cavaliers that's what i can say but now i'm the motivational speaker for the los angeles lakers if you have a you know basketball i don't need to say nothing else you know the player that makes sure that i'm with him wherever he plays and it's cool to be at court in middle school today clap your hands if you gladly everybody's saying who are you i just told you all right so that's it that's all i got right there that's all i got now everybody's saying where are you from now i know every english teacher is cringing right now because i'm destroying people but okay i was born and raised in knoxville tennessee i had the privilege and honor and i see a little girl with the greatest hoodie ever in the world on i played football at the university of tennessee in knoxville balls good job girl good job be real all right all right all right so here's the deal everybody say where are you from now everybody looking better i wish i could joke the whole time but i cannot and unfortunately when they ask me to tell you where i'm from i need four minutes and 30 seconds but before i do that i need you to look at with this many kids in a room somebody jim is going to identify with who i am and where i'm from if you are that kid who identifies with what i'm about to say i need to say two things to you number one don't you ever give up because if i can make it you can't do it and number two okay i'm so sorry i don't want anybody to grow up like me but in a room this big i know you're here it's really four minutes and 30 seconds i'll tell you welcome i was in the first grade first grade i went to school one day the bell rang when i looked up at what we called the chalkboard my name was on the chalkboard you know you're in trouble when your name is on the chalkboard okay but not just mine but then i realized everybody else's name was the first when the belt ring i said excuse me why is my name up there and the teacher said tomorrow is one of the greatest days in school history tomorrow is parent-teacher conference listen to me does anybody know what that means parent-teacher conference good then watch this i hate that day if you hate that thing clap your hands i hate that day i got teachers laughing that's my favorite teacher right there my name is first teacher said your mom and dad are coming right after lunch tomorrow when you're on the playground when you see your parents light up at the door i get five minutes with your parents didn't get to go home i didn't say no when i got home i said no i hope they forgot and they didn't say nothing to me so i thought they'd forgotten until after lunch when we went to the playground they were there we spoke it was over teacher said reggie you can go home with your mom and dad when we walked outside that's when it happened everybody said what happened i noticed something all my friends were with their parents all my friends parents were young but my parents are like oh and i'm thinking why they hope but i didn't say it out loud you don't say stuff like that out loud you got to wait for the right time so we get in the car we're going home i'm in the back seat there in the front seat right time so i yelled to the front seat hey why y'all don't ever do that look at me if your people all keep it to yourself okay when we got home my dad said we gotta talk so they put me at the kitchen table to have a talk anybody ever been to the kitchen table to have a talk if you haven't don't go if you don't smell food run girl run okay when we sit down my dad started my dad said son there's a plan for your life i said yes sir my mom looked at me and said my favorite word my mom said baby i like that okay i know y'all gonna laugh at me but when i was little i thought my mom was magic every time she said baby my darkest night had light my cloudiest day had sunshine no matter what i was going through i'm gonna make it [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay you asked i like to make it a little lighter but i'll be honest with you where we're going with this there's no easy way to say it my mom said baby i'm sorry and she started crying my mama cried so hard that my dad moved chairs and held my mom for 10 minutes until she calmed down once my mom calmed down my dad said tell them tell me hey by the way everybody get ready teachers balcony student aides they are fine she can stay she can make that much annoying it's all good with me i know some of you are like some of you know who i'm talking about and what i'm talking about but you listen to me i'll explain it because you need to know now if you ever get to honor a privilege of meeting someone who's different than you always treat with respect love and honor and here's why it could have been me i see kids in wheelchairs every time i do schools and i honor them i thank them for letting me be at their school we don't respect anymore and the normal is probably why i am who i am today can i give you a phrase that sounds weird i might be doing this for teachers about this do you know why i'm so popular you know why everybody loves you know why you like me because of this i learned this when i was in the sixth grade all right here we go put your hand now watch this here's what i learned in sixth grade all of us are like most of us i'm gonna give it to you one more time all of us are like most of us y'all got it one more time all of us are like most of us here's what that means no matter how people look no matter what they do no matter if they can throw or shoot a basketball there's something in their life that is absolutely messed up and somehow they found the courage and the strength to get over it to walk through it to become great like they are but listen to me very carefully once you think somebody has no problems you're fooling yourself because all of us are like most of us did y'all get it that's the first time i ever said that in public school so you all should take that home and write it down because i think if you get it i'm gonna use it again but watch this my mom cried for 10 minutes finally my dad said tell her and when she spoke my whole life changed here's what my mom said i'm so sorry i'm old because i'm not your mom and my dad whispered i'm not your father i grew up in foster care my entire life then she said you have a brother his name is keith you have two sisters and then jenna your mom kept your brother your mom kept all of your sisters but your mama said that you were mistaken and she hated the day that you before so she gave you away but it's okay you're with us now it's all right are you okay and i said i'm okay mom i'm just tired i just want to go to bed i'm all right it was the first time i lied but it wouldn't be the last hey anybody ever lied about something then you got to lie about that and then you gotta lie about that and you know anybody ever look in the mirror and go who the heck am i now she can't restrain the war some of you are freaking out some of your eighth graders going why are people raising their hand here's why because most of us are like the rest of us i ain't special and i hate this one out of everything i say from six years old to 13 years old every night when i went to bed that voice in my head if i know the voice i'm talking about that voice in my head said your own mama don't want you your own mama don't want you your own parents gave you away you don't belong anywhere you're nothing you're absolutely nothing hey everybody look at me there's value in every kid in this room i don't care who you are i don't care what you've been doing i don't care what your mama said i don't care what your daddy get you have value you have purpose there's always going to be somebody in your life who will give you hope and you know what i am nothing but hope it's my favorite word in the dictionary hope you know why h-o-p-e with hope anything is possible but without hope we're doomed but as long as you're breathing there's hope everybody breathe in there's hope okay breathe out don't pass out everybody i was 13 years old it was three o'clock in the morning i decided i didn't care no more i was 13 years old it was three o'clock in the morning and i decided to give up on the gift of love it's the saddest thing i've and at 3am i started crying in my bed and that's when it happened my bedroom door opened look if your bedroom door opens at three in the morning run okay because you're in a scary movie i don't like scary movies who loves scary movies i hate scary movies put your hand down you know why i don't like scary movies i'ma tell you the truth and if you know i'm right clap this is not racial it's the truth in scary movies black people died first you know [Applause] [Music] all right you know you know oh by the way it wasn't clown it was my foster care dad he was a school janitor until the day he passed away his name is bill everybody say bill oh by the way bill he's my he straight up money he walked in and said you're all right i heard you crying i said how could you hear me crying your rules on the other end of the house he said son every day you hug your mom every day but for the past two days you haven't hunger every day you talk to me but for the past two days you've been so quiet and you were so sad i didn't tell you but two nights ago on my way home from cleaning the school i decided i wanted to be close to you just in case you needed a friend so for the past two nights i slept by your door and this morning i heard you crying what's wrong all i said was i don't know what to do and he said this i'll never call you reggie i'll always call you son and i'll love you till the day i die and he did look at me kids when i was in high school i had to write poetry i've written two poems my whole life first poem i wrote was roses are red violets are blue i think you ugly and i know your mama is true my teacher did not appreciate the work i put in that one the next poem i wrote was for my grade she said it's got to be about your life i thought about it this is what i wrote listen carefully i wrote these words i don't need to know your name to know your pain i have my own i don't need to know your home to know your shame have my own was somebody know hey yo 8th grade i don't know if you get this but for the past 36 minutes i've been sitting by your door hey sixth grade you get it you know me better now than you did when i started seventh grade for you the sixth grade and the eighth grade i'm saying this to every person that can hear me even the teachers faculty and staff i just came today to tell [Music] hey everybody hold on you got to understand there's some kids they ain't never hurt they in their life they just don't understand this but there's a few of you brothers and sisters who are looking at me like holy crap this dude just dropped it on my lap i know that's why i'm a motivation but you can only be good you talk about what you know you know what i know i know loneliness i know sorrow i know how to wear a mask and pretend everything's good when it's not i know what it's like to wake up and not want to get out of bed i'm glad i'm here today but here's the deal on your way to figuring out why you're on this planet earth help someone give someone that hope that i'm talking about that's all i've been doing right now and i need to teach you and show you how to give hope which leads me to my favorite song of all time but i need everybody in this gym to help me with this song here's what i need you to do everybody look at reggie take both things and put it like this here's one nation you're pointing somebody beside you now point it yourself now point to the sky let's do it one more time point to somebody pointed yourself pointless guy now doing that is one thing but putting words with it is another put them up point it to me look at them and say don't you give up point at yourself and say i will give up put it up say let me love you now we got to say your words with my friend point at your neighbor trust me i'll just say exactly the way i say it look at your neighbors say don't you give up everybody just stand with me [Applause] [Music] tell your friend don't you everybody just clap your hands [Music] so [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Applause] [Music] [Music] put your hands up [Music] don't you give up [Music] [Music] somebody say all right all right all right [Applause] are you all good should i stop or keep going are you sure are you positive do i have time to keep going [Applause] one of my best friends in the whole world is named preston president not not him because my next mind was preston has three children let it go just let it go all right his youngest son his name is vito as you can tell they're italian veto has what he calls superpower what that means in our terms is veto is autistic now here's what you need to know about veto here in the 10th grade and he never met a stranger and he says he has the superpower because his job is simple if he ever sees someone sad he thinks and believes it's his job to make their day better every christmas right before christmas i fly to new jersey and i hang out and i do the saturday before christmas with vito we go to the mall he gets a present for his dad his brother and sister he looked at me one day tomorrow he goes i'm like you i'm like you it's my fault i said what's your fault mom left dad it's my fault it's because i'm special i said no no that's not why that happened he said what your fault can't believe we're walking in the mall to get presents and we always go to whatever cartoons playing in christmas time so we bought the presents put him in the car going back in the mall to go to the movie theater and he looked at me goes my spider senses are tingling which means he sees someone who's having a bad day and now he's got to make their day better you can't stop it you just got to let it play up he starts walking i'm right behind him i'm checking out the whole mall it's full it's right before christmas and before cold right so i'm going what the world was going on and i saw a lady sitting on one of those binges in the mall and she crying she had tissue and she was wiping her tears he walked straight up to her and he said excuse me man i know you don't know me but you're way too beautiful to be so sad what can i do to make your day better and she went oh my goodness that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said can i have a hug he gives her a hug she starts smiling she says thank you so much we walk away he looks at me and says mission accomplished preston called me the other day he said something happened to veto at school i said no he said he was waiting for his teacher three boys who were seniors who didn't know anything they started making fun of because he looked different they would knock his books out of his hands he'd pick them up and knock them down whenever vito gets scared and nervous he gets loud okay so he started going it's okay it's okay you can make fun of me i like it when people are happy it's okay it's okay but down the hall was a girl who went to school with you know she's been around him ever since kindergarten so she knew somebody was messing with her and she wasn't having none of that so when she came around the corner she is starting to take off her earrings i don't know if you kids understand that oh stop y'all do understand that in kentucky if a sister takes her earrings off somebody's gonna bleed clap your hands you know what i'm talking about right now okay y'all surviving children in this gym right now okay all of a sudden she didn't even do she didn't even say nothing to the boys making fun of ego somebody's like why are you telling me the story because of what she said the veto watch this she walked up the window took him by the hand and she said this come with me right now you deserve better than this you deserve better news in my entire program i've been saying this to every kid in this gym come with me right now you deserve that well you kids are so good i decided to give you a bonus song but in order to give you a bonus song i have to have some people help me on the gym floor and i know i know i love it kids volunteer in middle school you shouldn't seen the high school they were ready to go but i just need a specific kind of person so let me explain there is a white line right there right here on the gym floor that white line so if you are in this group of people you just need to come and stand on the white light behind me would every teacher faculty and staff person in the gym right now please come down to the floor and stand on that white line behind me everybody clap for your teachers right now oh y'all gotta clap better than that give it up hey excuse me man i said teachers oh 12. all right i better stop trying to travel all right all right keep getting younger right now you have to do what the teachers do okay so teachers is what i need to do raise your hand bring them down go like this do not dab don't [Music] student students cool still one more time so will 47. cool all right all right before we do this song i got to say something everybody touch your neighbor and say this is good touch your other neighbors say just real good um teachers about with your staff listen to me very carefully very carefully um even though my real mom gave me away what she did was crazy good my real mom gave me away to her favorite teacher at school i was raised by my mom's school teacher and her husband was the school gym y'all wanna go a little deeper the reason i play saxophone so well i have this thing called add adhd some of y'all know i'm talking so first of all i'm real officially i just need to go for years and not sleep or nothing but when i was eight years old the teacher who raised me found out that music and rhythm can help guys like me calm down when i need to so instead of medication they brought me a saxophone when i got fidget he said play with the radio and that's how i got this well also i had a problem with dyslexia where i could read but the words go backwards after about four or five pages i get emotional when i say this she read every book through cop she recorded everything i needed to get my degree and when i played football at tennessee everybody thought i was listening to tupac i was listening to mom i graduated with a 3.65 gpa because of her so i just wanted the same thing boys like me become men like me because of teachers like you everybody look at me if you have nobody to talk to at home and needing help today do what i did find your favorite teacher find your coach do what you got to do let them help you let them help you because i promise you they can and they will they'll move them out if they have to but they've got to hear from you what you need do me one last time clap for your teacher stay right there all right here's my last song when i'm done with this song it's gonna be good it's old school though that's why i had to have you all up here these little babies ain't gonna know this song all y'all want to know this song except for the 12 year old teacher everybody else you ain't never gonna let it down girl it's over right so one last time y'all ready everybody raise your hands break em down go across you want it yourself point is somebody else all right cool hit that track everybody here we go [Music] bye [Music] [Applause] [Music] can you your hands [Music] [Music] all right all the teachers do a little dance right now no teachers young teachers no teachers okay that's scary that's very scary all right i'm nervous very nervous [Music] hey [Music] no valley come on come on no numbers [Music] clap for your teachers everybody please welcome my friend george give george a hand [Applause] i would [Applause] gonna have person giveaways ready to be played and speaking again uh the door's open at 6 30 it starts at seven he'll be there tonight he wants every one of you guys to come i hope you can get your parents or catch a ride or get there any way you can but we're gonna have a great time had it last night we're gonna have a great time tonight i'm gonna give stuff away like i said i got some t-shirts right here to give away to anybody these t-shirts say speak speak life i hope that there's nothing else that you'll just speak like okay [Applause] tell it give it up for your principles [Music] you

Channel: cms-tv

Views: 336

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: corbin middle school, corbin ky, reggie dabbs

Id: g_LQozhyvhg

Length: 60min 25sec (3625 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 01 2021