Out of my 10-ish years of school assemblies, I would personally pronounce Chris Herren’s presentation as the best I have ever attended. I have been to many assemblies throughout my life, but I usually just look for the entertainment in them, as most of the lessons don’t pertain to me. I did not have a personal connection to Chris Herren’s presentation, but it sparked emotion in me. I noticed many aspects of this presentation that made it so different from the rest. Being completely honest, I walked into the auditorium on Wednesday expecting to sit through another presentation on drugs that wasn’t going to relate to me. I subconsciously hoped that some part of this assembly would involve students from the audience or do something to entertain me. I soon realized that during this common planning, the presenter talking was entertaining enough.
The first aspect that was different about this common planning was that early in the presentation, Chris Herren established that he was not going to accept students talking while he was talking. This set a serious mood and the shock of not being able to talk really made the students pay attention more. Suddenly, he was telling us heart-wrenching stories of students that he has met at different assemblies. These stories were intense and real, which kept students interested and listening closely. Seconds of silence would pass after he would tell a deep part of a story, and all of the students stayed quiet too.
The second aspect that made it stand out so much to me came at the end. Many students could relate to the speaker and were truly impacted by what he was saying. They were inspired by his stories and stood up to share theirs. When Chris Herren asked if anybody had any questions or wanted to share anything, I wasn’t expecting anybody to say anything. It wasn’t until the first student shared their story that I felt so affected by this presentation. In this moment, the students that stood up truly had the respect and support of everybody in that auditorium. Standing up in front of the whole school takes a lot of courage, and I applaud everybody that did it. As students were standing up and sharing stories, I learned that many students are going through hard times right now. This assembly was real and intense, as it proved that there are hardships happening around me that I didn’t even know about. The most impactful moment for me was when the whole school started to clap after the first student shared their story. I’m only a sophomore, but I just felt so incredibly united with everyone. This assembly proved our unity as a school, and it made me really happy to feel so unified. Many students were impacted by the speaker, but I was impacted by the students.