Speaker: ‘Rest of life is best of life’ off drugs
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PRAIRIEVILLE — Fighting for the attention of elementary- and middle-school students requires a few weapons, as motivational speaker Fairest Hill sees it: tunes, the chance to dance in front of a crowd of your peers, and the freedom to yell at the top of young, healthy lungs.
More than 1,000 Ascension Parish students did just that last week at the 22nd annual Drug Awareness Rally at the Gonzales Civic Center.
Gonzales Mayor Barney Arceneaux said the program is a great way to show students the dangers of drug and alcohol addiction, and in a way that gets their attention. The city and the school board partnered to present Hill’s program on Oct. 21.
Hill said there are many things distracting children today from their potential to succeed, and drugs are just one in a long list.
But it’s at the top of his, he said. His dad died when Hill was 11 years old, leaving his brothers and sisters to deal with their grief, each in their own way.
Unfortunately for at least three of Hill’s siblings, the outlet was drug abuse.
While drug awareness was the impetus for the rally, Hill talked — or rhymed — more about self respect and respect for others. He said it’s what kept him out of trouble, and got him out of the cycle that trapped many people in his hometown of Detroit.
“The rest of life is the best of life,” Hill told students. “And teachers, you think I’m just talking to them (students), but I’m talking to you, too.”
Attitude, he said, is the most important investment you can make, and it clears the way for the second route to success — education.
And attitude is the hardest thing to control, especially when one considers peer pressure from the wrong peers.
“Listen to your mama. Listen to your dad,” Hill said. “They know what they’re talking about.”
Hill’s grandfather lived to be 100 years old, he said, and before ending his program, he passed on this advice from him: Take one day at a time, and don’t let things bother you.
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