Ryan Roe - What Would Roberto Clemente Do?

 

 

Thank you, guys. So, I was five years old when I was down at the Children's Hospital in Philly. And I was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome. Now, if you don't know much about Tourette's, it's a nervous system disease that causes someone to twitch uncontrollably. It can either be motor tics or verbal tics. For instance, my tics as a kid were mostly like doing things with my mouth or kind of twitching my head like that. I also had verbal tics, like, I would grunt and, just make noises [onomatopoeia] a lot like that. 

 

When you're diagnosed with Tourette's, there's not a lot that doctors can do for you. They gave me some pills that can calm the tics a little bit. They had a lot of side effects and they didn't work all that well. They also gave me a DVD with the title I Have Tourette's But Tourette's Doesn't Have Me, [audience laughter] which is way too long of a title. [audience laughter] It doesn't fit on the poster. It doesn't flow. 

 

I remember watching this DVD. And on this DVD, there was another five-year-old with Tourette's and he said, “Tourette's makes you a marked man.” And me as a five-year-old watching this thought, that's way too profound [audience laughter] a thing for a five-year-old to be thinking. But in a lot of ways, he's right. When you have Tourette's, especially as a kid, you feel like you have this scarlet letter. It's often the first thing that people notice about you and make judgments upon. It's really hard to have any confidence in your own voice when you have this looming cloud of embarrassment and self-consciousness. 

 

I grew up in a small enough community where there was teasing and things, but eventually all the kids knew me and they were used to it. And unfortunately, the people that I really had a problem with were teachers, because usually, every year, the same thing would happen. My parents would meet with our teacher, and they'd tell them about my disease and they'd say, “Well, it'll probably be fine, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.” 

 

And then, at some point throughout the year, there would be a breaking point where the teacher no longer had any patience with me, all the support was gone, the mood around me changed. All of a sudden, I'd be getting called out in the middle of class in front of people. I'd be sent outside to sit out right by the door and listen into the class. A lot of teachers would pull me aside and just directly to me, not even to my parents, tell me that they think I should be homeschooled or I should join the kids in the special needs class. 

 

As a kid, this is heartbreaking, because with everything else that you have to deal with, not just in school, but out in public, and there's constant stares at you, you feel like the one person who should really have your back is your teacher. So, when I didn't feel like I had that support, it was very frustrating. 

 

But I did have one really great teacher. When I was in fourth grade, my teacher was named Mrs. Bragg. Now, Mrs. Bragg had been teaching for over 30 years. She had seen everything. There was nothing that could faze her. And at one point, we were doing a project called Famous Pennsylvanians. It's actually really neat. Each of us was assigned a famous Pennsylvanian from history, and we would research our Pennsylvanians and then dress up as them and do presentations. It was really a neat thing. 

 

I was assigned Roberto Clemente, who, if you don't know, is a famous player for the Pittsburgh Pirates. I was really excited about this. I had tons of fun reading about him, and researching him and dressing up as him and things. One day, we were in the school library, and it's quiet in there and I was just having one of those really bad tick days. I was really loud, I was really embarrassed, but there was nothing I can do about it. There's no way I can control it. I could feel the eyes of everyone in the room staring at me. 

 

Just as the frustration in me was building, Mrs. Bragg calls me out into the hallway. And I thought, well, there it is. I should have seen this coming. This is what happens every time I broke her. I came out into the hallway, and she looked down at me and she said, “You know, Roberto Clemente also had Tourette's.” And I said, “Really?” And she goes, “Yeah, he actually twitched just like you did. He would have trouble during interviews and things, but he never let that stop him. He worked really hard, he ignored others and he became one of the best at what he did.” 

 

And that meant the world to me. It was like I had never heard of anyone successful who had my disease. And so, just for a moment, I felt like I was normal. I had hope for the future. And it really meant the world to me when she told me that. And for years after that, every once in a while, I would have one of those aggravated tic days, and I would think back to that and I think, what would Roberto Clemente do? He would work hard, he would ignore others and he would never give up. 

 

And then, just a few years ago, I was thinking about that and I thought, I've never actually googled that. [audience laughter] So, I go to google Roberto Clemente Tourette's. There's nothing that says [audience laughter] he ever had Tourette's or anything like it. She completely made it up just to make me feel better, and it's one of the kindest things anyone has ever done for me. 

 

So, now, every once in a while, I still have those days where I feel self-conscious. But this time, I think to myself, what would Mrs. Bragg do? [audience laughter] She would work hard, she would ignore others and she'd never give up on me. Thank you very much.