Endurance: Nick Toti

Don't we all wish to have endurance in life? Whether it be academically, physically, or mentally; we all wish to have some form of endurance or else we will continuously be tired. Going into the guest speaking event I did not know what to expect. A guy simply telling us how hard the process was, a guy telling us how important school is, or a guy speaking to us on how cool the film industry was. What I experienced was non of those things. Nick Toti, the guest speaker endured a lot, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dreams, he had a very bad divorce, but none of these things stopped him. Nick Toti is the definition of endurance and he reminded me a very motivation-like movie on Netflix titled "Beast of No Nation."

Beasts of No Nation is about a young boy named Agu who had his father killed and was separated from his mother and two youngest siblings. The reason why I correlate Nick Toti and this movie with each other is because Agu went from having his family killed so becoming a soldier of one of the top rebellions of the country. I'm not saying that that was a good thing but Agu did what he needed to do to survive and make it someway. That, in a way, reminded me of Nick Toti because he took to the risk to leave Kirksville or his hometown and move to the dream-filled city of Los Angeles, and he is striving because of it. How? It is evident because he has the prestigious credentials that are impressive enough to be a guest speaker at the number 1 Public liberal arts university in Missouri.

Agu and Nick Toti are the same person to me, kinda weird I know, but I tend to associate role models with movie characters. I always thought about going into film and becoming some sort of actor. That is why I always thought it would be risky to get any form of tattoos because it could somehow deter me from a future dream. As I continued to watch Beasts of No Nation, it started to remind me of myself. I do not come from a pretty place and neither did my parents. Both my parents are from Haiti and decided to come to Florida/USA for a better life for their children. At the time in Haiti there was huge political corruption. So corrupt that the president and his officials restricted thousands of individuals and families from fleeing their tyranny.

Agu's family is very similar to mine. His family initially left their village to flee from political corruption that caused the deaths of thousands but initially died in the process. My family made it out and now their children are children in college aspiring to be contributing members of society. I maybe going off-topic but this is what I found interesting about Nick Toti, the Netflix movie, and how they both have an effect in my life. Everyone in this story endured and are now doing great things with their lives.