do you think you guys can handle the R-rated version?

When Ed Kang finished speaking for our class that monday night, there was one thing that really floored me, his age. after all of his crazy ass stories about prostituting women and getting involved in things that aren’t normal for us, i was truly amazed at his sense of inner peace and maturity.

When he asked us if we wanted the sugarcoated version or if we could handle the R-rated version, i looked over at Bryan and i remember giving him the eye-brow thinking, what kind of skeletons is this guy packing in his closet? never would i have imagined that he was involved in the things that he told us about. listening to him was like reading subtitles for a movie that was too graphic to watch; but he didn’t make me uncomfortable at all. the way he spoke was so colloquial, so effortless – of course it’s not the first time he’s been in front of people and certainly not the last. Ed Kang made an uncomfortable topic, approachable because, i think, of where he is today in his life.

Ed is a super rad guy. he wasn’t talking just to run his mouth; he was talking to run our minds. you can tell that he likes the surprise in an audience’s face when he tells us his story. And i feel like that is something important to the speaker itself; satisfaction. i always go into my speeches thinking, i want people to be impressed with my speech or i want people to learn things, but Ed made me realize that i, as the speaker should go into and come out of speeches satisfied and smarter. isn’t it just as much about me as it is about the audience? there were so many people in the room and sometimes it was as if he was talking only to you. i went home that night and just kept thinking about how young he was when he got involved in all of that shady business and how far he’s come. i thought about how young he still is and about how much more he can accomplish.

Ed is a great speaker because he’s very easy to listen to. he’s just the right amount of funny and just the right amount of serious. public speaking has taught me that it’s not about how long or short or interesting someone’s topic is, it’s more about what you can take away from it; even if you only learn one thing, you still learned something. i know Ed wants us to think big about life and reach inside of ourselves to pull out every little piece of greatness and use that to make even more greatness. he did a fantastic job at turning himself around and “re-inventing” his own life. i learned more than just one thing from Ed’s speech and it goes beyond approach and technique.