Will Humphreys recounts being suspended from physical therapy school and investigated by the FBI after a white powder from his blinded study (labeled sugar/creatine) was mistaken for anthrax about one month after 9/11. He describes being brought in by agents to a campus crime scene, facing public ridicule and a year-long suspension, defending himself to the university with character witnesses, and ultimately having the suspension treated as served with no transcript notation. He closes with a lesson: large dreams bring large challenges, and returning to purpose enables resilience.
Questions this video answers
Creatine monohydrate phosphate
About one year
Chapters
In my third year of physical therapy school, I almost had those dreams shattered as I was suspended from physical therapy school pending an FBI investigation for suspected terrorist activity.
On September 11th, we all went through a horrible time as a country as we saw planes crash into the towers in New York. One month later, I woke up to a phone call from an FBI agent who asked me to come down and answer some questions. I had no idea what it was for, but as I pulled up to the university, it was a crime scene. There were fire trucks, police cars, news reporters with lights flashing. And I went up to the police barricade and the officer instantly recognized me and rushed me into the building where there were two FBI agents waiting to interrogate me. I still didn't know what it was about, but both of these agents, through their questioning, informed me that essentially a white powder had gotten loose and was thought to be anthrax. My master's thesis study was creatine monohydrate phosphate, and every bag was labeled either sugar or creatine because we were doing a double blinded study. But earlier that morning, a janitor had gone in and either knocked over a bag of powder or a bag of powder was dropped on him over the door as a prank by one of my partners. But either way, this bag gets spilled. And immediately from the fear of anthrax, which was the second terrorist wave, the 911 was called and all of this was set in motion. After the FBI were done with me, the police were outside waiting to handcuff me and take me down to their offices. So over the next year, I had to defend myself to the university in a trial. I had to call in character witnesses. Both were in the PT program. Some of my professors and others were friends and family trying to tell the university that I wasn't guilty. But it was too late. I was guilty until proven innocent and not the other way around. In the community, I was front page of the newspaper. I was all over the news. So I couldn't go out in public without people ridiculing me and telling me what a horrible human being I was. What was neat about that experience is that you get to see who your friends are. I got to see people take a stand for me. And as a result of that, I learned how to take a stand for myself at the end of the year. Gratefully, they looked at that year of suspension as punishment served. And nowhere on my transcript would there ever be a mention of my suspension. I realize now what that was about. But either way, I never had to tell this story again if I didn't want to. But today I want to. I want you to know that we are always going to find difficult challenges as we pursue our dream. And the greater the dream, the greater the challenge. When things get hard, go back to your purpose. If you want to have a big impact, that means you have to have a big purpose. With a big purpose, you can overcome anything. Thank you for listening.
