Deonte Bridges has been facing adversity since he was a child. His older brother, Maurice, was 20 when he died of an enlarged heart, 13 years ago, when Deonte was 4. As he was quoted in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “It sounds cliche, but he was my best friend.” When he was 13 years old, according to this KCAL 9 video, he had to look up the term “leukemia” for his mother, who had been diagnosed with the disease but wasn’t certain what it was. And in 2008, Bridges was robbed at gunpoint, and because of that, as he was quoted, “I was afraid to go out of the house.”
Instead of allowing that adversity to stop his progress, it only fed his need to succeed — and succeed he has. Bridges was the valedictorian of Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta, the first African-American male valedictorian in more than a decade, and the recipient of 26 scholarship offers. Those scholarships totaled more than $1 million, including the $360,000 Gates Millennium Scholars Program one he accepted to study close to home at the University of Georgia, where he’ll have all his expenses paid for both his undergraduate and graduate education.
And in case you think he’s just had his nose stuck in books all this time, think again. He was repeatedly asked to speak at the local YMCA (the kids there called him “The Valedictorian”), was part of the Freedom Writers program at his high school and even wrote a rap song that he performed at an Anti Defamation League dinner. And his valedictorian speech (below) has more than 100,000 hits on YouTube. Take a few minutes to watch it and see if you don’t feel more inspired to overcome adversity in your own life.
Screengrab by apsupdate via YouTube.