Episode 50: Senior Chapel Talks by Annie Masterson, Will Oliver, Colby Guillory, Eric Lull, and Sam Shi '19

In her #SeniorChapelTalk, Annie Masterson shared her competitive drive with the TMI community. But, unlike others who could simply shake off not winning, she would spiral downward–viewing defeat as complete failure. Over time, she began to view this combination differently; her competitiveness was really a passion without fear. Though she still struggles to reign in her emotions at times, she’s learned that failures do not define her. “I will always have my friends, my family, and God to embrace me and my imperfections.”

In his #SeniorChapelTalk, Will Oliver spoke about the love he has for his family–not just blood relatives, but the friends and communities who have come into his life and become his extended family. From his coaches here at TMI and his teammates to his teachers and classmates (old and new), family is made up of the people who are always there; through good times and bad, play after play. “I’ve been able to find my family, make sure you find yours.”

During his #SeniorChapelTalk, Colby Guillory spoke about his guiding forces from deep within. He shared a few humorous stories of what was clearly destined to be–from winning a bet playing rock, paper, scissors to being chosen for the Punt, Pass, and Kick contest at a football game…and losing. In a moment of clarity, he realized that everything up to this point had happened for a reason…even if the purpose was still yet unknown, “and I can only pray that for whatever moment I was put on this earth to participate in, I have the eyes to recognize it.”

Viewing his entire life as a competition, Eric Lull shared in his #SeniorChapelTalk how this mindset, paired with a crippling fear of failure, created a war-like environment in his head. He tried to achieve balance by setting attainable goals, but still found he felt like a failure. But the summer before his junior year at Camp Capers, one message resonated with him–when we do things out of love, we find happiness, meaning, and success. He realized his previous struggles were because he had fallen out of love with the process of perfection. Discovering this, he created three rules to live his life by: love yourself, love others and the world around you, and live for love.

In his #SeniorChapelTalk, Sucheng "Sam" Shi spoke about option bias. From choosing to accept a ride from an unsafe driver because it is the only transportation available to telling ourselves we can get by with less work when we succeed on a test we didn’t prepare for, our subconscious uses overly-optimistic thoughts to guide many of our decisions. But, no matter what actions we take, we are responsible for the consequences and “by being responsible for our own actions, we’re also keeping possible dangers and unforeseen accidents from people around us–especially for those who we love and care.”