Speaker challenges students to define themselves

By Amanda Blas, Staff Writer -- blas13@up.edu

For some, the thought of being diagnosed with an untreatable and incurable disease means being closer to life's end. But for motivational speaker Sean Baumstark, such a diagnosis was not an end. It was a new start to life.

Monday night, Baumstark opened Diversity Dialogues Week with a talk in Shiley Hall.

"It was a good way to kick off Diversity Dialogues Week because his main thing is to motivate people," sophomore Student Diversity Coordinator Jordan Mattson said. "We wanted him to motivate students to talk about diversity and get involved in diversity."

Diagnosed at 25 with Friedreich's Ataxia (FA), which progressively attacks the muscles and the heart, Baumstark drew on his personal experiences to share with students how the choices he made allowed him to overcome his own diversity.

"There are always the choices that you make that you kind of regret and wish you didn't make," Baumstark said. "I want to encourage you tonight that despite those choices, you can still live and have the life you want to have. I didn't choose FA, but I'm choosing how I react to it."

Though doctors told Baumstark FA was both untreatable and incurable, he refused to let the diagnosis define his way of life. Despite medical suggestions, he continued to exert himself through physical activities, which led to him being an Olympic Torch Bearer and completing two cycling events.

"I don't sit and think about what could have been, nor do I spend mental energy resting on the mountains of misfortune," Baumstark said on his website. "Instead, I wake up every day pursuing the future that I not only see but that I can create."

He continues to share this view with audiences through his inspirational talks and presentations.

"It's the fact that he came to this view by overcoming his hardship that makes him so motivational," sophomore Zach Baza said. "He was different because of his health, but he didn't allow that difference to hold him back. Instead, he chose to say, ‘Look at me, I'm different, and I'm going to embrace it.'"

Baumstark urged students to choose to define themselves instead of letting their diversities or others define them, just as he did with his diagnosis.

"It's unfortunate that we allow those things to define who we are. I think it's awesome when we allow those things to empower what we do and who we become, and it's unfortunate when people allow something to hold them back," Baumstark said.  He quoted Michael Nolan saying, "It's not who we are that holds us back. It's who we think we're not."

He also reminded students that embracing diversity does not stop at accepting one's own differences.

"The goal is challenging people to be open minded to not only what makes them diverse but also to what makes the world around them diverse," Baumstark said. "The ultimate challenge is to open their minds up to what's going on in both their lives and the lives of the people around them."

Baumstark wanted to get one thing across to UP students.

"Ultimately I hope people are encouraged and challenged to define who they are and begin to use those things to change the world around them," Baumstark said.

Junior Sonali Venkatachalam heard Baumstark's message loud and clear.

"I was amazed at how powerful his message came across," Venkatachalam said. "I knew he'd talk about diversity, but I never knew he'd go as far to challenging our views of diversity. I think a lot of us needed that."

Baza agreed.

"A lot of us think diversity is the challenge, but Baumstark showed us it's not," Baza said. "The real challenge is to stop thinking about diversity as a problem and start thinking about it as something that makes us stronger."

 

Learn more at seanbaumstark.com