Infinite Possibility: Shaka Senghor at TEDxYouth@SanDiego 2013

How y' all doing today? As an MIT Media Lab Fellow, I have an amazing opportunity to work with some of the greatest minds in the world, like Zhu Zhu, who created a piano that allows you to play along with some of your favorite musicians. Or Eric Rosenbaum, who created Makey Makey, which allows you to turn bananas and stairs and other inanimate objects into musical instruments. In January, I'll be teaching at the University of Michigan. And it is definitely one of my dream jobs. So I'm very excited about that. Give it up for University of Michigan. Y' all go blue. But some of the work I'm most excited about is the work I do with an organization called Black Male Engagement, where I have an opportunity to work with black men in Detroit, Philadelphia and Baltimore. And these are some of the most inspiring men that I've ever encountered. They do amazing work throughout these cities. So in essence, at this point, I feel like my life is unlimited. I feel like I can accomplish anything I set my mind to. But it hasn't always been like that. See, three years ago, I walked out of prison after serving 19 years for second degree murder. When I walked out of prison, I carried with me a few things. My prison id, the rest of my little belongings, and most importantly, hope. Hope was the thing that carried me for 19 years and inspired me to be the man that I am today. And so I brought that hope out into a very different world. If you can imagine Fred Flintstone being dropped into an episode of the Jetsons, that's what it was like for me, walking out of prison. I walked out of a cave like existence into this technology driven world and I literally had to catch up just like this. So as I began the process of reintegrating myself into society, I started reflecting back onto some of the things that led to me being incarcerated. And it made me think about how so many of us start off dreaming big and want to accomplish great things and we end up taking the wrong turn and oftentimes we never recover. In my instance, I ran away from home at the age of 14. Couldn't get along with my parents, didn't want to follow the rules, and I thought I was running into a better environment. But instead I got seduced into the crack trade. I started selling drugs, and within the first six months, I experienced some of the most horrific things you can imagine a human being can undergo. I was robbed at gunpoint, I was nearly beat to death. And at 14 years old, I became addicted to crack cocaine. Several months later, my childhood friend was murdered in front of A crack house. My older brother was shot. And then at the age of 17, I myself was shot three times standing on the corner of my block. When I got shot, went to the hospital and got processed through like so many other young men in our community and sent right back to the hood. I didn't realize that I was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and that a reaction to being shot, that I would become the shooter. Fourteen months later, in a similar conflict, I decided to shoot first and tragically caused the man's death and was subsequently sentenced to 17 to 40 years in prison. One month until my 19th birthday. As I stared down my sentence, I was angry, I was bitter. I was frustrated with the system, with my parents, with the teachers who I felt allowed me to fall through the cracks. And so I got into a lot of trouble. In my first five years, I accumulated a total of 25 misconducts, which ranged from fighting to assault on staff to dangerous contraband. I rebelled at every possible corner you can imagine. But there was one thing consistent during that first five years, and it was literature. Every time I found myself in trouble in solitary confinement, I found myself with a book in my hand. One of the most important books I've ever read was the Autobiography of Malcolm X. When I read that book, it awakened in me the unlimited potential that so many of us don't realize that we have. But what it also did is it led me to read other books like As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. And that book was so powerful because it reminded me that we think into existence our reality, and that no matter where we at in the world, it's a direct result of the way that we think. As I was sitting in prison, that was one of the hardest things I had to battle with because I didn't want to accept that I had thought myself into that position. I didn't want to be accountable, I didn't want to be responsible. I continued my journey through prison reading books, getting in trouble. And eight years into my sentence, I caught another case and was subsequently sentenced to an additional two years and ended up serving four and a half years of solitary confinement. 23 hour lockdown every day for four and a half years in one of the most insane and cruel environments you can imagine. But I made a conscious decision to turn that prison cell into my own personal university. I was disgusted with the way my life had turned out and I had to ask my question. How did I go from wanting to be a doctor to serving my most valuable years out in solitary confinement? It was at that Point that I began to take a long, hard look at myself. I started journaling, writing, writing about the past, writing about things that had happened to me because I had to know, how do so many kids with so much promise end up in these unfortunate circumstances? But I also set my days up as if I was at a university. In the morning, I would study political science. In the afternoon, I would study philosophy. I would study African history. I would study culture. I would study creative writing. I would study, like the brilliant writers of the times. And I also started taking writing seriously. I penned my first novel while in solitary confinement. And it was one of my greatest accomplishments at the time because I realized through journaling that I had never accomplished anything of significance other than the ged. But what that told me was when I wrote that first novel was that I was capable of creating anything, that I was capable of doing anything. At that point, I didn't even know if I would ever get out of prison. But what I did know is that if I ever got out of prison, that I would become an asset to my community and that I would never again limit my thinking, limit my belief in myself, ever give up. And so In June of 2010, I walked out of prison a free man. Not because I had been released from prison, but because mentally I had made a commitment to never live within the boundaries of other people's expectations. So as I stand here today, one of the things I want you to think about is you are as limited as you allow yourself to be. Never allow anyone's self imposed idea of what you're capable of become your reality. Break outside of boxes, matter of fact, destroy boxes, tear them up, crumble them up. Because you are worthy of that. When I walked on this campus, all I saw was amazing energy, inspiring energy. And one of the things that I think that we forget about is how capable we truly are. Now remember I told you I came out of this cave like existence into this new world of technology. One of the things I discovered that oftentimes we forget is that we created the technology. The technology didn't create us. So as much as we love our apples, our iPhones, our MacBooks, all these great tools of ingenuity, we should love our minds just as much. Because it's our minds that produce this. Think about this for a second. If you overload your phone, what happens to it? Shuts down, stops functioning. If your computer accumulates a virus, it shuts down to stop functioning. That doesn't happen with your brain. Your brain can take in infinite amounts of information and it can produce infinite amounts of information. And once you own that, there is no limit to what you can accomplish. As I stand here as a testament, I want you to make a commitment today to say this to yourself. If this man Shaka, can walk out of prison after 19 years, earn a fellowship at MIT Media Lab, which is one of the most premier institutions in the world, teach at the University of Michigan with nothing more than a ged, then there is no excuse, no limits to what I'm capable of accomplishing. Can you all agree with me on that? I'm going to leave you with these final words. Have the courage, the will and the commitment to embrace who you truly are. Never limit yourself for anybody else. We living unlimited, y'. All. Peace.