Indigenous? Marginalized? PLEASE Watch This!

Hello, you absolutely amazing person, you. If I were to ask you what your teachers used to say to you, what would be the first thing that comes to mind? Now, for me, it's not necessarily what they said, but what every report card said. And that was crystal clear, quote, unquote, she talks too much. Considering my career, that's pretty much the point of this video. So let's talk about it. Michigan additiona Kassman Dodam. Hi, everyone. My name is Sandy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine River First Nation in Treaty 3 Territory in Northern Ontario. And today I wanted to look at not only the influence of the teachers in our past teachers, whether they were formal public education teachers or the adults in our lives, but also why I focus on certain things on my channel because you may not understand my intent. And today I wanted to make that crystal clear. So first off, let's talk about these, these teachers who in my case thought I talked too much. To all of those teachers that felt the need to write that on my report card, I feel the need to now say, nana, Nana. Nah, nah. Just saying. Now, I don't remember a lot of negative comments. I was pretty lucky. I grew up in a very small northern Ontario town, like 400 people small, and everyone knew everyone and everyone was supportive of everyone. I can remember certain instances that stand out and probably, I don't know, they led to the person I am. Maybe you're going to see it more than I did. So the first story I guess I have is of I would have been in grade one. It was a split grade one, grade two class, which I'm a huge fan of, because then you get exposed to what the next class is going to be like, what they're studying and learning. And for high achievers like me, I was the straight A student. So that environment really worked for me. I realized it doesn't work for a lot of people. In my case, it totally did. And I have always had teachers who encouraged me to write, to write a story or to write a paragraph about something, whatever my little heart felt like doing. I honestly believe it kept me occupied, out of their faces. That probably helped a lot. But I can remember this specific day. I was writing a story, I was writing a fiction novel, and my character was in her bedroom and she went to get something out of the dresser. But I was trying to be a professional author. I was in grade one, Remember this? I was trying to be more lofty in my vocabulary. So I didn't Want to put dresser. I wanted to put. Are you ready for this? I'm going to have to put this on the screen so you get the humor here. I wanted to put that she went to get something out of her Chester drawers cuz I heard my mom and dad refer to it as such. So I wrote and then as always, I took it up to the teacher to proofread. And I distinctly remember Ms. Pincus's smile, a grin, a little smirk on her face as she explained to me that it's actually not Chester drawers, that it's actually chest of drawers. And she corrected it on my paper and sent me back to my desk. This is probably foreshadowing come to think of it, because I looked at the crossed out word and her written chest of drawers above it and I quickly concluded that obviously she didn't understand what I was talking about, that I didn't explain it clearly enough. So I crossed out her correction and turned it back to Chester drawers. I knew what I was talking about. How's that for fun? Now fast forward to grade three and four. Now I thought this was again because I was a straight A student and I loved school and I loved learning and I really hated being held back. I wasn't a patient student student anymore that I'm a patient adult. But when I got into grade three and four, I don't know if you know this, I'm 60 years old. So if you're around my age group, maybe you remember this when it came to, I want to say English, but that's not what it was called. Like, like reading comprehension, I think it was. Anyways, they had this box in our classroom and there was a bunch of tabs. And for every tab there was a story you had to read and then you had to answer all these questions and it was learn at your own pace. I loved that box. That, that was my jam. And the best part was Philip was another student in the class and we had this competition going. He wanted to know which tab I was on. And actually everyone in the class knew what tab you were on because the desks were aligned in the order of what tab you were on, which now I can see would be horrible for the person who was struggling. But that was in my little world. At the very back right hand corner is where the desk of the person who was the furthest sat. And then it just continued along the the rows. Philip and I, I swear our desks were dancing because on a daily basis, if not a couple times in one day, we shifted our desks again, a great memory for me. Horrific for someone that would be struggling. And I got in. That was grade three, actually, because in grade four, I met Mr. McKenzie. Now, this man changed my world because up until then, I was used to older women that I knew in the community that were my teachers that applied to every teacher I had up until grade four. And in walked Mr. MacKenzie with his longer hair and his beard and dressed more casually like he was about to go sit at a campfire. And I think a few of us wondered, did this man just wander in here by accident? No. He was our teacher. And he was so different. He. And so open to discussion and sharing new things with us, getting us to question things. It was absolutely amazing. And one of the things. Well, two things Mr. MacKenzie did again. He allowed me to write anytime I wanted to, on any topic I wanted to. I can remember doing article or a project on elephants and the difference between African and. I don't even remember what's the other type of elephant. Hmm. That's a long time ago. And he would take the time to proofread it and give it a mark. I pretty sure it didn't apply towards anything, but he took that time. I mean, that's an amazing teacher. And the other thing, one of the expectations we had, I guess, I don't know if there was reading time. I don't remember that part. But I know once a week we lined up at his desk, and in our arms we would be holding whatever book we just finished, and we would hand him the book and he would ask us questions about it to make sure we had actually read it. And I can remember I always was in line with somewhere between three and four books. And the first couple times I did that, he kind of looked at me like, really? Really. But when he questioned me about each book and I was able to articulate what the book was about and what I had learned from it, he realized I did read all those books and not only read it, but absorb it again. I wasn't told to slow down. I wasn't told to. To only focus on one book. I was allowed to grow. So that's an excellent influence. I honestly believe, and I have said it for years, that I am an author because of him. So I have a lot of positive influences. And the reality is I have no doubt in my mind that I have had negative feedback from different people over the course of my life. I don't hang on to that. I don't want those negative comments in my suitcase. My suitcase that collects all the Things that I see and hear and learn. I have always had the attitude that I get to live life once and I'm hanging on to every positive memory. Did you know, did you realize that when a relationship ends, it doesn't negate all the good stuff. You can hang on to the amazing memory of a phenomenal first date and you don't need to hang on to how it ended. You can hang on to all the good stuff and choose to set the negative down. And that kind of brings me to the point of this video because you see often in my videos and maybe you've wondered why I share empowering quotes. I share, you know, video clips from other videos that have super empowered me and you might wonder why. It's because as a marginalized person, I'm an, I'm an indigenous female in Canada definition of marginalized. And there's so many marginalized groups in this country. Women as a whole are a marginalized group. If we just go with the negative, the negative comments and the negative reinforcement that Canada tends to shove on us. I don't want to wish that journey on anyone. But what I realized early on is we can find positive reinforcement in the books we read, in the videos we watch, in the speakers we follow. And I share these things on this channel. And because for marginalized people, changing the message that runs in our heads is so incredibly important. Now, anyone who's followed my channel for any length of time knows I'm a 10 year domestic abuse survivor. And if you have not known that path, and I really, really hope you haven't, but unfortunately the stats say if you're a female watching this, there's a really good chance you have. What other people may not realize is the abuse continues long after the relationship ends in the form of the voice in your head. I used to say horrific things to myself, call myself names that even my abusers didn't use. And until my elder sat me down and told me how important it was to change that voice. And by the way, if you're wondering how you got to tell the voice in your head to shut up. And then just as important, you have to change the message instead of if your voice says, wow, you made another mistake, Sandy, ever stupid. I always stop and go, wait a minute. No, I'm not stupid. I was rushing or I'm tired, I need to take a break, I need to slow down, I've got this. The good news is if you get in the habit of correcting the voice, it stops saying the horrific things. And I am living Proof that's true. So because I am focused on Indigenous Canadian reconciliation, and you notice I put Indigenous first because there is no reconciliation without the healing of Indigenous people. And that can be supported by Canada and should be supported by Canada, but it has to be led and driven by Indigenous. We have to heal for our sakes, for the sake of ourselves, our children, our grandchildren, our partners. Because if there's one thing my mom used to always tell me is the next person that comes into your life, don't make them pay for what someone else did in your past. You heal before you move on, because that is not their burden to carry. You deserve to have a voice in your head that believes in you. You deserve to hear the voices of people who believe in you. So find them. Feel free to add my channel to your list because I most definitely believe in you. I believe in every audience member that attends any speech workshop or seminar I give. Because they wouldn't be there if they didn't genuinely want to learn. Which is also why I charge extra for mandatory sessions. You got this. But what you take in is up to you. You may have negative influences in your life. Sometimes family members can be a challenge. Let's get real here. Just make sure you have more positive influences. And maybe, just maybe, that means you got to start watching positive influencers online. And like I said, please make sure I'm one of them. So that's why I do what I do. Look back on those influencers, and you know, what if the negative ones were really easy to find? Think of the positive ones. Take the time, put in the effort to remember the positive ones, because as my mom would say, count your blessings. And if you find that difficult, you better do it twice. Which means you need to remember those positives, because that's your fuel. The negatives, those are the boulders holding you back. I want you to have an amazing journey. So let's get the fuel, put those boulders down. Until tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye. Bye.