98 Who Do You Think You Are?
Who do you think you are?
I think that the calling on my life is to help people get a larger vision of
themselves beyond their circumstances and mental conditioning. I came
to that level of awareness in terms of my purpose because of what has
happened in my own life: born in an abandoned building on the floor,
adopted, labeled educable mentally retarded, put back from fifth to fourth
grade, having no formal college training. I then experienced a life-
transforming event when I met someone who interrupted the story I
believed about myself, the things that had been said about me, and based
upon the results that I had produced at that particular time. I had this
limited vision of myself, and as a result of this relationship, it dramatically
changed the way I saw myself. As a result of that, in my own mind and
spirit I wanted to be that type of person to other people. I wanted to
impact and inspire others to get an expanded vision of themselves and
realize what was said in The Lion King, “Samba, you’re more than that
which you have become.” That to me has become my theme and the
mantra of my life and that’s where I have been living from.
What event or series of events led to your discovery?
There have been three events. One, when I was adopted. I believe
something that Abraham Lincoln said, “All that I am, and all that I ever
hope to be, I owe to my mother.” I realized something that really impacted
me. God took me out of my mother’s biological womb and placed me in
the heart of my adoptive mother. So, my mother, Mrs. Mamie Brown,
always made me feel special, and I was one of seven kids that she adopted.
The other person who impacted me was Mr. Leroy Washington,
a high school teacher who I met my junior year in high school. He was a
substitute instructor, and he asked me to go to the board to work something
out. I was in his class waiting for another student, so I said, “Sir, I can’t
do what you asked me to do.”
He asked me, “Why not?”
I replied, “I’m not one of your students.”
He said, “It doesn’t matter, follow my directions anyhow.”
The other students began to laugh, because they knew that I was
in special education. They knew my twin brother, Wesley, and one of the
kids said, “That’s Leslie not Wesley, that’s DT.”
That’s what they called me, DT, which stood for the “dumb twin.”
I said, “I’m not the smart one.”