-
Not Synced
When I was young,
-
Not Synced
I wanted to be on TV:
-
Not Synced
the lights, the cameras,
-
Not Synced
the makeup,
-
Not Synced
the glamorous life.
-
Not Synced
And from my vantage point,
-
Not Synced
just outside of a military base
in Lawton, Oklahoma,
-
Not Synced
I didn't make the distinction
between TV reporter or actor.
-
Not Synced
It was all the same to me.
-
Not Synced
It was either,
-
Not Synced
"Reporting live from Berlin"
-
Not Synced
or "I shall attend her here and woo her
with such spirit when she comes."
-
Not Synced
(Laughter)
-
Not Synced
It was all special,
-
Not Synced
it was all the spotlight,
-
Not Synced
and I just knew that it was for me.
-
Not Synced
But somewhere along my journey,
-
Not Synced
life happened.
-
Not Synced
Ah, much better.
-
Not Synced
(Applause)
-
Not Synced
I have a disease called vitiligo.
-
Not Synced
It started early in my career.
-
Not Synced
It's an autoimmune disorder.
-
Not Synced
It's where it looks like your skin
is getting white patches,
-
Not Synced
but it's actually void of color.
-
Not Synced
It affects all ethnicities,
-
Not Synced
it affects all ages,
-
Not Synced
all genders,
-
Not Synced
it's not contagious,
-
Not Synced
it's not life-threatening,
-
Not Synced
but it is mental warfare.
-
Not Synced
It's tough.
-
Not Synced
Now, I was diagnosed with this disease
-
Not Synced
when I was working on
Eyewitness News in New York City.
-
Not Synced
I was in the biggest city in the country,
-
Not Synced
I was on their flagship station,
-
Not Synced
and I was on their top-rated 5pm newscast,
-
Not Synced
and the doctor looked me
right in the eye and said,
-
Not Synced
"You have a disease called vitiligo.
-
Not Synced
It's a skin disorder
where you lose your pigment.
-
Not Synced
There is no cure, but there
a-la-la-la-la Charlie Brown's teacher."
-
Not Synced
He said there is no cure.
All I heard was, "My career is over."
-
Not Synced
But I just couldn't give up.
-
Not Synced
I couldn't quit,
-
Not Synced
because we put too much into this,
-
Not Synced
and by "we" I mean Mr. Moss,
-
Not Synced
who sent me to speech and drama club
instead of to detention,
-
Not Synced
or my sister who paid
part of my college expenses,
-
Not Synced
or my mom,
-
Not Synced
who simply gave me everything.
-
Not Synced
I would not quit.
-
Not Synced
So I decided to just put on makeup
and keep it moving.
-
Not Synced
I had to wear makeup anyway.
It's TV, baby, right?
-
Not Synced
I just put on a little more makeup,
and everything's cool.
-
Not Synced
And that actually
went very well for years.
-
Not Synced
I went from being a reporter
in New York City
-
Not Synced
to being a morning show anchor in Detroit,
-
Not Synced
the Motor City,
-
Not Synced
and as the disease got worse,
-
Not Synced
I just put on more makeup.
-
Not Synced
It was easy.
-
Not Synced
Except for my hands.
-
Not Synced
See, this disease is progressive
and ever-changing.
-
Not Synced
That means it comes and goes.
-
Not Synced
At one point, for about a year and a half,
-
Not Synced
my face ewas completely white.
-
Not Synced
Yeah, it trips me out too.
-
Not Synced
(Laughter)
-
Not Synced
Yeah.
-
Not Synced
And then, with a little help,
-
Not Synced
some of the pigment came back,
-
Not Synced
but living through this process
-
Not Synced
was like two sides of a coin.
-
Not Synced
When I'm at work
and I'm wearing the makeup
-
Not Synced
or wearing the makeup outside,
I'm the TV guy.
-
Not Synced
"Hey, how you doing everybody? Great."
-
Not Synced
At home without the makeup, I take it off
and it was like being a leper.
-
Not Synced
The stares, constantly staring at me,
-
Not Synced
the comments under their breath.
-
Not Synced
Some people refused to shake my hand.
-
Not Synced
Some people moved
to the other side of the sidewalk,
-
Not Synced
moved to the other side of the elevator.
-
Not Synced
I felt like they were moving
to the other side of life.
-
Not Synced
It was tough,
-
Not Synced
and those were some tough years.
-
Not Synced
And honestly,
-
Not Synced
sometimes I just had to shelter in place.
-
Not Synced
You know what I mean?
-
Not Synced
Kind of just stay at home
til I get my mind right.
-
Not Synced
But then I'd put my blinders back on,
-
Not Synced
I'd get back out there,
-
Not Synced
do my thing,
-
Not Synced
but in the process of doing that,
-
Not Synced
I developed this angry, grumpy demeanor.
-
Not Synced
Anger is an easy go-to,
-
Not Synced
and people would leave me alone,
-
Not Synced
but it just wasn't me.
-
Not Synced
It wasn't me.
-
Not Synced
I was allowing this disease to turn me
into this angry, grumpy, spotted guy.
-
Not Synced
It just wasn't me.
-
Not Synced
So I had to change.
-
Not Synced
I knew I could not change other people.
-
Not Synced
People are going to react
and do what they gonna do.
-
Not Synced
But there was a cold hard reality as well.
-
Not Synced
I was the one
-
Not Synced
that was showing anger, sadness,
-
Not Synced
and isolating myself.
-
Not Synced
It was actually a choice.
-
Not Synced
I was walking out the door every day
-
Not Synced
expecting the world to react
with negativity,
-
Not Synced
so I just gave them that mean face first.
-
Not Synced
If I want to change,
the change had to start with me.
-
Not Synced
So I came up with a plan.
-
Not Synced
Two parter, not that deep.
-
Not Synced
Number one, I would just let people stare,
-
Not Synced
drink it in, stare all you want,
-
Not Synced
and not react.
-
Not Synced
Because the truth is
is when I got this disease,
-
Not Synced
I was all up in the mirror
staring at every new spot
-
Not Synced
trying to figure out what is going on.
-
Not Synced
So I needed to let other people
have that same opportunity
-
Not Synced
to get that visual understanding.
-
Not Synced
Number two:
-
Not Synced
I would react with positivity,
-
Not Synced
and that was simply a smile,
-
Not Synced
or, at the very least,
-
Not Synced
a non-judgmental kind face.
-
Not Synced
Simple plan.
-
Not Synced
But it turned out to be
more difficult than I thought.
-
Not Synced
But over time,
-
Not Synced
things started to go OK.
-
Not Synced
Like this one time, I'm at the store
and this dude is like staring at me,
-
Not Synced
like burning a hole inside of my head.
-
Not Synced
I was shopping, he's staring at me,
-
Not Synced
I'm going to the checkout,
he's staring at me,
-
Not Synced
I'm checking out, he's on the other line
checking out, he's staring at me,
-
Not Synced
we go to the exit,
he's still staring at me,
-
Not Synced
so I see he's staring
-
Not Synced
and finally I turn to him
and I go, "Hey buddy, what's up!"
-
Not Synced
And he goes, "??. Hi!"
-
Not Synced
(Laughter)
-
Not Synced
Awkward.
-
Not Synced
So to relieve the tension, I say,
-
Not Synced
"It's just a skin disorder.
-
Not Synced
It's not contagious,
it's not life-threatening,
-
Not Synced
it just makes me look a little different."
-
Not Synced
I end up talking to that guy
in the grocery store
-
Not Synced
for like five minutes.
-
Not Synced
It was kind of cool, right?
-
Not Synced
And at the end of
our conversation, he says,
-
Not Synced
"You know, if you
didn't have vitilargo"
-
Not Synced
-- it's actually vitiligo,
but he was trying, so --
-
Not Synced
"if you didn't have vitilargo,
you'd look just like that guy on TV."
-
Not Synced
(Laughter)
-
Not Synced
And I was like, "Haha,
yeah I get that, I get that, yeah."
-
Not Synced
(Laughter)
-
Not Synced
So things were going OK.
-
Not Synced
I was having more good exchanges than bad,
-
Not Synced
until that day.
-
Not Synced
I had a little time before work
so I like to stop by the park
-
Not Synced
to watch the kids play.
-
Not Synced
They're funny.
-
Not Synced
So I got a little too close,
this little girl wasn't paying attention,
-
Not Synced
she's about two or three years old,
-
Not Synced
she's running, she runs directly
into my leg and falls down, pretty hard.
-
Not Synced
I thought she hurt herself,
-
Not Synced
so I reach out to try
and help the little girl
-
Not Synced
and she looks at my vitiligo
-
Not Synced
and she screams.
-
Not Synced
Now kids are pure honesty.
-
Not Synced
She's like two or three.
-
Not Synced
This little girl, she wasn't
trying to be mean.
-
Not Synced
She didn't have any malice in her heart.
-
Not Synced
This little girl was afraid.
-
Not Synced
She was just afraid.
-
Not Synced
I didn't know what to do.
-
Not Synced
I just took a step back
and put my hands by my side.
-
Not Synced
I stayed in the house for two weeks
and three days on that one.
-
Not Synced
It took me a second to get
my mind around the fact
-
Not Synced
that I scare small children.
-
Not Synced
And that was something
that I could not smile away.
-
Not Synced
But I jumped back on my plan
-
Not Synced
and just put on my blinders,
-
Not Synced
started going back out.
-
Not Synced
Two months later, I'm in a grocery store
reaching on the bottom shelf,
-
Not Synced
and I hear a little voice go,
"You've got a boo-boo?"
-
Not Synced
It's like a two-year old, three-year old,
same age, little girl,
-
Not Synced
but she's not crying,
-
Not Synced
sop I kneel down in front of her
-
Not Synced
and I don't speak two-year old
so I look up at the mom,
-
Not Synced
and I say, "What did she say?"
-
Not Synced
And she says, "She thinks
you have a boo-boo."
-
Not Synced
So I go, "No, I don't have
a boo-boo, no, not at all."
-
Not Synced
And the little girl says,
-
Not Synced
"Duh-duh-hoy?"
-
Not Synced
And so I look to mom for the translation,
-
Not Synced
and she says,
-
Not Synced
"She thinks you're hurt."
-
Not Synced
And I say, "No, sweetie,
I'm not hurt at all, I'm fine."
-
Not Synced
And the little girl reaches out
with that little hand
-
Not Synced
and touches my face.
-
Not Synced
She's trying to rub the chocolate into
the vanilla or whatever she was doing.
-
Not Synced
It was amazing! It was awesome.
-
Not Synced
Because she thought she knew what it was,
-
Not Synced
she was giving me everything I wanted:
-
Not Synced
kindness, compassion,
-
Not Synced
and with the touch of that little hand,
-
Not Synced
she healed a grown man's pain.
-
Not Synced
Yee-ha. Healed.
-
Not Synced
I smiled for a long time on that one.
-
Not Synced
Positivity is something
worth fighting for,
-
Not Synced
and the fight is not with others,
-
Not Synced
it's internal.
-
Not Synced
If you want to make
positive changes in your life,
-
Not Synced
you have to consistently be positive.