Living to Be Well

Misconception of Sports and Academics

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

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Series Code: LTBW

Program Code: LTBW000002A


00:35 Hi, I'm Dr. Kim and welcome to Live to be Well.
00:39 You know, I have great concerns about athletes today,
00:43 especially African-Americans.
00:45 My guest today is Dr. Jeffrey Porter.
00:48 And he is going to talk to us about some of the challenges
00:51 about misconceptions of academics and sports.
00:55 Welcome, Dr. Porter to Live to be Well.
00:57 Thank you, Dr. Kim. It's so good to see you.
01:00 It's a pleasure to be here with you today.
01:01 I'm so proud of you
01:03 and going back a little bit, how we met.
01:07 I remember that first phone call
01:10 and you went to Shanghai.
01:12 And you were looking for a therapist.
01:16 You were having some challenges in your personal life
01:19 and I got really excited 'cause I knew the name
01:23 because you're a two time Olympian.
01:27 And I recognized the name so,
01:29 you know, that ego got a little bit.
01:31 And you kind of deflated the ego when you said to me,
01:34 "Well, you know, I called other people
01:35 but you were the only one that called me back."
01:38 And it was all good, we all need to be humble.
01:41 But it was a good connection from that first phone call
01:45 and to see you evolve today and how,
01:49 you know, God has brought your personal life,
01:51 your academic life,
01:52 and your professional life all together.
01:55 So let's talk about the journey of Dr. Jeffrey Porter.
01:59 You know, you did not...
02:01 You weren't born and raised in Michigan.
02:03 Tell us of your journey?
02:04 So I'm a New Jersey native,
02:06 I was born in Summit, New Jersey.
02:08 And I was raised in East Orange,
02:10 New Jersey for a lot of my early life
02:12 and there was a lot of crime infested neighborhoods
02:15 that we lived in.
02:16 The house was beautiful. Yes.
02:17 I still remember the house.
02:19 But my parents felt that wasn't a good place
02:20 to bring up twins and so my older brother and us.
02:25 So we moved down to the suburbs
02:27 and that's where
02:28 I lived most of my life down in place called Franklin
02:30 in New Jersey.
02:32 So how did, you know, you get involved with sports
02:36 because your father, he was an attorney?
02:38 Correct.
02:39 So was it something that he encouraged his sons
02:43 to get involved in
02:44 or was he more into the academics?
02:47 Dad was both.
02:48 He was a guy who stressed academics
02:51 pretty significantly in our household,
02:53 but my brother and I...
02:55 So again, I have a twin brother and we were very active,
02:57 and we were very active kids.
02:59 And so we imitated everything we saw on TV,
03:01 whether it's from like TV shows or movies
03:04 and that's something that my parents got tired
03:06 of breaking down the house.
03:08 And so we looked for activities
03:10 that we can get involved and the first thing
03:11 we started looking out at was flag football.
03:13 And that was the first athletic competition
03:16 that I participated in.
03:17 What grade was that?
03:18 It might have been...
03:20 Elementary or middle school?
03:21 Yeah, that was elementary school.
03:23 Okay, all right.
03:24 And that's something I gravitated towards
03:25 'cause my brother and I, we could hit people.
03:27 Now, it was flag football,
03:28 but we didn't quite grab the concept
03:29 and so football was our first love.
03:31 And that's something that my dad was our coach
03:33 for couple of years and watched us progress
03:36 and so he was that main advocate for us
03:38 getting out of the house and spending our energy
03:40 so we didn't break his house down.
03:41 I understand.
03:43 How did mom feel about the flag football,
03:45 you know, 'cause mothers tend to be,
03:46 "Don't break anything, you know, be careful."
03:48 Well, mom realized that it was either us
03:51 going to break each other in the house
03:52 or outside on the field.
03:53 So she encouraged us to get out of the house,
03:57 and to be with our friends and to,
03:59 you know, play and have fun, be kids.
04:00 All right.
04:01 So now, you're journeying
04:03 into middle school, high school.
04:05 How did you get to Michigan?
04:07 Well, I got to Michigan on a track scholarship
04:10 which is pretty entertaining.
04:11 Because all through elementary school,
04:14 middle school and early part of high school,
04:15 I don't like running track.
04:17 You didn't like it? I did not like running.
04:18 Wow. I wasn't fast.
04:20 Wow. And I wasn't good at it.
04:22 So I stayed away from something that I wasn't good at.
04:24 And so I tried every other event on the track,
04:26 I tried javelin, pole vault, the long jump,
04:28 things like that.
04:30 Because I'd do anything to not run
04:31 'cause I did not want to run, I just wanted to play football.
04:34 And then one day,
04:35 as more stories tend to incorporate,
04:39 I saw a lady on my track team.
04:41 Yes.
04:42 And she did an event and she ran over this barrier.
04:44 I said, man that looks cool.
04:46 So I go over there
04:47 as a young arrogant young high schooler
04:51 and I started talking trash, that's what we do.
04:53 And we came up with a bet and she said,
04:55 I won't be able to clear
04:56 the boy's height for the barrier.
04:58 I said, okay.
04:59 So I ran as fast as I could
05:01 and I was just thinking to myself,
05:02 I'm going to land flat on my face.
05:03 Yes.
05:05 And I got on the other side. Really?
05:06 And my coach happened to see at the same moment and he said,
05:09 "Well, looks like we have a hurdler now."
05:10 And you did.
05:12 And so my first competition,
05:14 I ended up tearing a muscle in my hip,
05:16 my first year in high school.
05:18 So that ended my freshman year.
05:20 That was it?
05:21 And then I spent the rest of the summer.
05:23 So hurdling is addicted,
05:26 it's because you want to get better.
05:27 And so I took hurdles home with me,
05:29 I started practicing in the morning in my free time,
05:31 I kept getting better, and better, and better.
05:33 And so I end up going to Michigan
05:35 as I become really good
05:36 at my sophomore junior-senior years.
05:38 Yes. And Michigan came calling?
05:40 And Michigan came, they scouted you out...
05:42 They scouted me out,
05:43 they came to my house, met my parents.
05:45 I went out to Michigan for a visit
05:46 and they offered me a full scholarship.
05:48 A full scholarship? Yes, madam.
05:50 Now, as you were looking at your life,
05:54 you know, academics.
05:56 What did you want to study?
05:57 You wanted to pursue and earn your degree.
06:00 I wanted to be an athletic trainer.
06:01 An athletic trainer? Yeah.
06:03 I wanted to be athletic trainer
06:04 because I had spent a lot of time
06:06 with my high school athletic trainer
06:07 and I thought his job was really cool.
06:08 Okay.
06:10 But when I got to Michigan, it became abundantly clear
06:12 that the athletic training degree program
06:14 wouldn't be conducive for track and field.
06:17 And so that schedule
06:18 and my tracking practice schedule didn't operate.
06:20 So I needed to find something else
06:21 I was interested in.
06:23 What was the ratio with African-Americans,
06:25 European-Americans, Asians, Americans,
06:28 what was the ratio when you came to Michigan?
06:30 There were 7% African-Americans total
06:33 at the university,
06:35 68% white and the rest were others.
06:37 Is that right?
06:39 So now, you are on the team.
06:42 What was your fastest time?
06:44 In high school, my fastest time
06:46 at the 39 inch barriers was 13.84.
06:49 And the reason I've mentioned that is
06:50 'cause when you get to the college height,
06:52 they are 42 inch barriers.
06:54 And to give you some perspective,
06:55 that's three feet, six inches.
06:57 My goodness.
06:58 I had opportunity to go and observe you on YouTube
07:01 and I mean, my goodness, you are fast and those...
07:05 I couldn't do that.
07:06 I mean, you know,
07:07 they have different heights for women.
07:09 Yes, madam. All right.
07:10 And we're going to talk about a special woman in your life...
07:13 And later on during the broadcast.
07:14 Now, let me ask you this.
07:16 Your degrees are in what, your bachelor's, your master's,
07:19 you recently earned your Ph.D.
07:20 Yes, madam.
07:22 My bachelor's is in kinesiology
07:23 with the focus on support management.
07:24 My master's is in higher education
07:26 with the focus on student affairs.
07:28 And my Ph.D.
07:29 is in educational leadership.
07:31 Let's talk about the misconception,
07:33 when you see African-American athletes,
07:36 your doctoral dissertation, what was the title of it?
07:39 It was between the classroom and the field,
07:41 an examination of the experiences
07:43 of black male football student athletes.
07:45 So, Jeff, why that field of study?
07:47 Well, there are a lot of misconceptions
07:49 about African-American men
07:50 as it relates to college sports.
07:52 Typically, media will tell you that we're uneducated,
07:56 we're not interested in anything else
07:58 but playing professional sports.
08:00 When we're quiet in the classroom,
08:02 that's because we're unengaged, we're sleeping in class,
08:05 we're not paying attention to the faculty members.
08:07 All these negative perceptions about African-American men
08:10 that play college sports.
08:12 Now you said that a lot of people
08:14 thought you played football.
08:16 Correct.
08:17 And you were on the track team...?
08:19 Correct.
08:20 Because you were African-American?
08:21 And so what happened many times after games,
08:24 walking around campus,
08:26 people would come up to me and literally with posters
08:28 or helmets or other paraphernalia,
08:30 ask me to sign assuming that
08:32 because I was African-American male
08:33 that I automatically played football.
08:36 No one even gave track and field a thought.
08:39 How did that make you feel that,
08:41 you know, that misconception
08:43 even in your beginning stages of your academics
08:46 was already there and years before?
08:49 Well, initially it didn't bug me
08:51 and then but one incident happened...
08:54 After a big game,
08:55 someone came to me and asked me for another autograph
08:57 'cause they called me somebody else's name.
09:00 And then I started thinking about more and more about
09:02 how was this okay,
09:04 how are these stereotypes allowed
09:05 to persist at an institution of higher learning.
09:09 And so that is the time and the place
09:12 that began to really open my eyes
09:14 for what is going on at this level.
09:18 It is disturbing to me,
09:20 how many African-Americans
09:22 do not complete their undergraduate degree
09:27 in the athletic department.
09:29 Correct.
09:30 How did you get through the program?
09:34 Did you have support? Did you have mentors?
09:37 What happened that you were able to graduate?
09:39 Well, similar to what I found in my dissertation,
09:42 the things that mattered to me wasn't exactly the class work.
09:47 It wasn't exactly
09:48 the track and field practice as a competition.
09:51 It was those people
09:53 who actually believe that I could actually graduate.
09:56 My father, my mother, my coach,
09:59 I had mentors on campus
10:00 who were there to ensure that I did graduate.
10:04 They wanted to figure out what the next step was,
10:07 how could I progress.
10:09 And because I used to meet with these people
10:10 on a very consistent basis whether it's weekly or monthly,
10:14 the question wasn't even about tracking,
10:16 it's how are you doing, how is class going,
10:17 what's next for you.
10:19 Holding you accountable.
10:20 Holding me accountable at every step of the way,
10:21 and I told my father going up to Michigan
10:24 that I was going to get him a degree.
10:27 And my mother said in her way,
10:31 "I don't have money to pay
10:32 for out of state tuition for the university.
10:34 So you need to figure out how to graduate."
10:37 And so those are kind of things that mattered to me,
10:39 and so as I became older
10:41 I was more aware of the people around me,
10:45 and the next step I was going to take.
10:48 You're very articulate
10:49 and able to engage and communicate.
10:53 You don't see that across the board
10:54 with a lot of African-American athletes.
10:57 This started in your home training?
10:59 Correct.
11:00 My father was an attorney as you mentioned.
11:02 Speaking well was something that was mandated in my house,
11:05 writing well, something that was mandated in my house.
11:08 And I couldn't talk like my neighborhood friends,
11:10 my father would not allow that.
11:12 And I had to learn from a very early age
11:15 that I was different and many times
11:16 it would be considered talking white.
11:19 Because I was articulate
11:20 because folks didn't hear a black male speak this well.
11:25 In my first class at the university,
11:28 when I got up and spoke,
11:29 everyone was shocked and surprised.
11:31 And I was thinking this is normal.
11:33 It's normal for you. But apparently, it wasn't.
11:36 So this was something that started
11:38 at a very early age,
11:39 my parents instilled that in me.
11:41 And so that's why
11:43 I've been able to be articulate throughout my entire life.
11:45 But also, entering college being able to read and write.
11:49 Let's talk about that, how many athletes,
11:52 African-Americans come into college
11:55 and they can't read or write.
11:57 There are...
11:58 Well, let me clear a misconception,
12:00 there is a smaller segment of those
12:03 who are functionally illiterate.
12:05 There is a larger section that do not read or write
12:08 at their grade level.
12:10 Really?
12:11 And that's the larger section that you'll see
12:14 that a lot of these student athletes
12:16 that come into the universities nationwide
12:17 do not read at a specific reading level.
12:21 And are they prepared for academia?
12:23 A lot of them aren't,
12:24 and they will tell you they aren't.
12:26 But the difference is that when you talk to those people
12:28 who are not prepared for academia
12:30 and that do graduate,
12:32 what's the difference
12:33 is because when they got into university,
12:34 they realized, A,
12:36 I'm unprepared
12:37 and that's the first realization
12:38 that you can come with.
12:40 I'm not ready.
12:41 Because I'm not ready,
12:42 I'm going to seek out all the help
12:44 that I can to help me get to the end point
12:45 and that's what a lot of them do.
12:47 Those who actually are very successful,
12:48 seek out those people who care about them,
12:49 that's first thing.
12:51 And the second thing,
12:52 are able to help them get through their classes.
12:54 And it's amazing as you see
12:56 the development of these student athletes
12:57 when they come in, and to when they graduate,
12:59 and you see, it's phenomenal, it's a world apart.
13:03 I notice also that a lot of athletes,
13:05 they get drafted.
13:07 And they don't complete their degrees,
13:10 but some return,
13:12 and they complete their degree,
13:14 and I think that is commendable.
13:17 I think that is a personal gratification
13:21 and now that they are older,
13:22 they realize they have to have something else
13:24 to fall back on.
13:26 Getting a degree in business,
13:28 being able to take care of their families in the long,
13:32 you know, haul.
13:34 Let's talk about your personal life
13:35 for a minute.
13:37 How you have balanced it because you met your wife,
13:41 tell us about your wife and who she is?
13:43 My wife is a talented beautiful woman,
13:48 a Nigerian descent,
13:50 British ancestry as well,
13:52 and she is the marvelous individual.
13:55 I met her
13:56 when she was a freshman on the track team.
13:59 I happened to be a sophomore.
14:00 I was a 19-year-old sophomore
14:02 and Tiffany was a 17-year-old freshman.
14:04 Yes.
14:05 And we had a connection,
14:07 probably about half way through the year.
14:08 All right.
14:10 And say half way through because when she first met me
14:13 and we started first interacting,
14:14 she didn't like me that much.
14:16 She thought I was arrogant, pompous, loud,
14:18 I cussed a lot, I drove fast.
14:21 She didn't like anything about me.
14:22 And I'm so happy that, that has come full circle,
14:24 you know, when I met you,
14:26 you had a major issue with profanity.
14:28 But we all have to grow, all right?
14:29 Yes, we do.
14:31 And you have truly evolved with that, all right.
14:33 And she didn't like me.
14:34 And her coaches used to joke all the time
14:36 that watch you're going to marry that boy.
14:38 And then somewhere around the spring time,
14:40 we started, you know, really talking and then I think
14:42 we started dating around that time as well.
14:45 And, you know, we progressed as a couple,
14:48 we had our rollercoaster ride like any couple.
14:50 And then we ended up getting married in 2011.
14:52 And Tiffany Porter is also a two time Olympian.
14:55 She is also a two time Olympian
14:57 and she is one the most fierce competitors
14:58 I've ever raised.
15:00 Oh, my goodness, she is unbelievable.
15:02 Now here you are,
15:04 you know, running for major Adidas,
15:08 no Nike and your wife runs for Adidas.
15:09 But she left the United States and went over to British?
15:15 Correct.
15:16 Okay, so how did that make you feel
15:18 when she
15:20 kind of admires you used to tease her lot of time,
15:21 but she abandoned the United States.
15:23 Well, funny enough.
15:24 When I met her,
15:26 first of all I didn't know she was Nigerian.
15:27 Okay.
15:28 I didn't know that her mother was born in Britain.
15:30 Really?
15:31 It wasn't until after the 2008 Olympic trials
15:33 that I found out that she was in fact British.
15:37 And then when you find out all the support
15:38 that the European athletes get and the British athletes get,
15:42 I was like, you need to go run for the British team.
15:46 Really? So you encouraged her? Yes.
15:47 Because it's more financially feasible
15:50 and especially in this professional realm
15:51 of track and field.
15:53 All right.
15:54 Her goal is to become that gold medal?
15:58 Yes, yes. She wants that gold medal.
15:59 She wants that gold medal.
16:00 You know, now you are, you are her coach now.
16:02 Yes. And you recently retired.
16:04 Yes, madam.
16:05 And so you're preparing now for the World Champions.
16:09 Yes, I'm getting her ready for the World Championships,
16:11 they would be London on August 5th through the 12th.
16:15 How did you or how are you balancing,
16:18 you know, your professional life
16:20 with marriage?
16:21 You know, because when I met you,
16:23 there were some concerns.
16:24 How are you now balancing things?
16:27 Well, part of it is because we've learned
16:30 and you taught me how to compartmentalize things.
16:33 You know, when work ends, work ends,
16:35 I'm not trying to take work home.
16:38 You know, when track ends, track ends,
16:40 and I can't take track home.
16:41 Because the things I say to my wife on the track,
16:44 I would never say it to her at home.
16:46 That's right.
16:47 And we have to work together to make sure
16:50 that those things don't bleed over.
16:51 Because when practice is over and I call it a day,
16:54 I can go back to being husband Jeff.
16:55 That's right.
16:57 Because Coach Jeff is very hard on my athlete.
16:59 Yes.
17:00 But husband Jeff has to be much more nurturing,
17:02 much more attentive to her needs.
17:05 And so it's been very challenging dealing with,
17:07 you know, at that point in school,
17:09 and then running.
17:10 But now dealing with,
17:12 you know, work and then coaching.
17:13 Yes. It's still challenging.
17:15 Because she also has earned her doctorate in...?
17:19 Oh, yes, in pharmacy. In pharmacy.
17:20 So she is a doctorate in pharmacy.
17:21 So I just married a very smart woman,
17:24 who doesn't take any nonsense especially from her husband.
17:27 Yeah. Except on the track.
17:28 Yeah, on the track.
17:30 So do you cook and wash and change the linen,
17:33 do you do all of that?
17:35 So I do none of the cooking.
17:36 You don't want me to do the cooking.
17:38 No cooking. I do barbecuing.
17:39 You do barbecuing. And baking.
17:40 And baking. And I do the dishes.
17:42 All right. Laundry?
17:44 I used to do the laundry. Why?
17:46 Did you change the whites to pink,
17:48 something like that?
17:49 Yes. Something happened.
17:51 Something happened and so I don't do the laundry.
17:52 You don't do the laundry anymore.
17:54 But again, so she does a lot of the laundry
17:56 but I still help her,
17:58 especially if she is slaving
17:59 over a hot stove as the expression goes.
18:03 I come home, then I do the dishes for her.
18:05 So we kind of back and trade off.
18:07 But, you know, she is gone a lot,
18:09 you were gone a lot.
18:11 You all were, you know, talking by phone,
18:15 it would be weeks and there have been months
18:18 that you've gone without seeing your wife.
18:21 And it's very difficult, how did you get through that?
18:24 One of the beauties of being a veteran
18:27 in track and field
18:29 is that I'm able to now coordinate my schedule
18:32 with hers a little bit more.
18:33 So we used to meet up at places around the world which was fun.
18:38 We used to meet up in the Czech Republic,
18:40 some places in Monaco, we used to meet up in Germany,
18:43 and a variety of different folk,
18:44 London is another place
18:45 where we could actually have the meets pay for our travel,
18:48 or we could stay together, be there for a period of days.
18:51 And so we tried to negotiate our travel,
18:54 where I would go somewhere
18:56 and then she would come with me.
18:58 You are proud of your wife. Very much so.
19:00 And you love your wife. Very much so.
19:02 What's next for you and Tiffany?
19:04 Well, after London,
19:07 where the conversation of starting a family comes up.
19:10 That's one of the things
19:11 that we're going to be talking about.
19:13 Tiffany is a strong willed individual.
19:17 So she wants to work in the pharmacy
19:19 and we are looking at opportunities
19:21 for investments here and there.
19:23 I'm going to start writing a book.
19:24 Yes, yes.
19:25 So there's a lot of things going on right now,
19:27 we're just trying to figure out
19:28 how to piece this all together into a nice beautiful puzzle.
19:33 But I want people to know
19:35 that it has not all been easy for Jeff?
19:36 No.
19:38 During a very special time for you,
19:40 you lost your father?
19:41 Correct. Let's talk about that?
19:43 I was...
19:44 It was 2006,
19:45 my father was diagnosed with cancer in December, 2016,
19:48 excuse me, no, 2006, he was diagnosed with cancer.
19:52 My mother told me that it was stage four
19:55 and at that I didn't know what stage four meant.
19:58 And so dad used to travel with us
20:01 and he went to the NCA Championship
20:02 with me in 2007.
20:05 And I won that championship,
20:07 but dad progressively got worse.
20:09 Dad got lung cancer
20:11 because he was in New York on 9/11.
20:14 And all those fumes and a lot of things
20:16 that first responded to him, he dealt with.
20:18 Really?
20:19 So that's why the cancer spread so fast, so rapidly.
20:22 By the time I saw him,
20:23 the last time I saw my father was in June of 2008,
20:29 he came to the Olympian trials.
20:30 Yes.
20:32 And he was the biggest fan that I have.
20:34 I didn't realize how sick he was
20:35 'cause I saw him with an oxygen tank,
20:37 he had lost 50 pounds at that point.
20:39 Was that in London?
20:40 No, the Olympic trials were in Oregon.
20:41 It was in Oregon and he was there.
20:43 He came there and his oxygen taken off
20:45 as a proud father to watch his son do something
20:48 that no one thought we could do.
20:49 And I didn't went that far,
20:51 I made it around to the second round.
20:54 But he was still there and he was still proud
20:55 and that was the last time I saw him
20:57 because he passed August 13th of 2008.
21:01 I'm so sorry.
21:02 And that was very difficult for you
21:04 and the support that he gave you
21:07 and now your mother is in New Jersey,
21:10 you have siblings who are all successful.
21:13 You're a proud uncle of several children.
21:16 Several nieces and nephews.
21:18 I think that one of the major concerns
21:22 I have when I first met you, that God was not a factor.
21:27 You knew, you talked about it, even we began to pray.
21:30 But as you evolved, you would say to me,
21:32 "Dr. Kim, we didn't pray."
21:35 And it touched my heart.
21:37 How important now is God in your life?
21:40 And I'm not saying because of Christian counseling
21:42 and you met me, it was all God.
21:44 It's God who receives all the glory.
21:47 The impact of God in my life is always retrospect.
21:51 You never realize
21:53 why you're going through something
21:54 that God is there.
21:55 But if you look back,
21:57 you realize that He had never left you.
21:58 Yes.
21:59 You know, God is...
22:01 Christianity and being in church
22:02 has always been a part of my life.
22:04 But it's not until life hits you real hard
22:05 that you start to realize
22:06 that you're not strong enough to hold on to this.
22:09 And, you know, after my father died,
22:11 it was too much at that point of my life.
22:13 Yes.
22:15 You know, trying to deal with my mother,
22:16 make sure she was okay, and then moving,
22:17 and I'm trying to figure out this track and field thing,
22:20 starting to go to graduate school,
22:21 and actually trying to think about getting married,
22:24 and getting married,
22:25 and it was just a lot of emotional baggage for me
22:28 to deal with.
22:29 And when I look back on it now,
22:31 the fact, the thing that really helped me
22:34 was that peace.
22:36 The peace that God gives you
22:37 because I don't look at me saying,
22:42 I've done xyz.
22:44 I looked at me as someone who was a mess,
22:48 I had a loathe dream
22:50 and God saw fit in His divine plan
22:52 to bring me through to the end.
22:54 No one would have thought sitting here today
22:57 that I would be a two time Olympian with a Ph.D.
22:59 That was not my plan.
23:00 Yes.
23:02 But it was in God's plan. Yes, yes.
23:04 And so when I look back on how I have been able
23:08 to stand here so long,
23:11 you know, that Christian song all you got
23:13 to do is just stand.
23:14 That's all I've done in my life
23:16 is persevere and stand.
23:17 Yes.
23:18 And those are the kind of things
23:20 that had mattered,
23:21 and my relationship with God has gone so much better now.
23:23 Yes.
23:24 I'm still a work in progress. Yes, you are.
23:25 We all are, we all are. Only God is perfect.
23:27 But it has been a marvelous journey to see
23:32 where I've come from, where I am, and where...
23:36 That journey if I look back on it,
23:38 only prepared for what's going next.
23:40 I surprised you when you defended.
23:42 Yes, you did.
23:43 Your doctoral dissertation,
23:45 your wife called me and told me that you were defending
23:47 because I don't know what happened
23:49 that I didn't get a call from you
23:51 but that's okay.
23:52 And I walked in and your face was like,
23:56 you know, my goodness, you are here.
23:58 I had to be there
24:00 because I remember the day you started,
24:03 I remember some of those difficult classes,
24:06 those papers, we pray together.
24:09 I mean, I was just asking God
24:12 to give you the wisdom and the words,
24:13 and being an African-American male,
24:17 and the challenges that go with that
24:19 and to see you endure the test, the Bible says,
24:22 "The race is not given to the swift nor the strong,
24:25 but to those who endure."
24:27 And I remember saying to you that Hebrews 11:1,
24:30 "Faith is a substance of things hope for,
24:33 the evidence of things not seen."
24:35 But in Hebrews 11:6,
24:37 "Without faith it's impossible to please Him
24:39 and He is a rewarder to them that diligently seek Him."
24:43 And that is all I wanted to share with you,
24:45 Jeff, through this journey, being your doctor,
24:48 being your therapist, to give your life to Christ,
24:51 and God will do the rest.
24:53 And as I look at you today,
24:54 you know, I don't want to start crying.
24:56 I'm just so happy in the Lord that,
24:59 you know, you want to be saved,
25:00 you want to see Jesus when He comes,
25:02 you want to be able to thank Him personally
25:06 for all that He has done for you.
25:08 I just want to encourage you, it's not over.
25:11 No.
25:12 You'll continue to live to be well,
25:15 and as long as you stay on the right path.
25:17 You don't smoke? No.
25:19 You don't drink? No.
25:20 You don't do anything to harm your body?
25:22 No.
25:23 You know, you're not a vegan though?
25:25 No.
25:27 I like the occasional meat every so often.
25:30 You know, we all are work in progress.
25:32 Okay.
25:34 But I can appreciate you
25:36 taking care of yourself and your wife.
25:40 I know that there are more things to come.
25:43 We are still in the process of our counseling.
25:46 You know, you have not let me go yet
25:48 and I haven't let go off you yet.
25:49 No.
25:50 Because there are still some things
25:52 as a young man
25:53 that I want to see you accomplish.
25:55 And I like to be a part of that journey,
25:57 the second half of that journey,
25:59 even writing and completing the book.
26:02 Closing remarks,
26:03 what would you say to someone
26:04 who is now pursuing academics and African-American athletes.
26:10 You have about 30 seconds, what would you say?
26:14 Persevere.
26:15 This journey is hard. Yes.
26:17 You got to this point
26:19 because you are the best at doing something.
26:21 Now to persist is going to be
26:24 the hardest test you'll ever have to deal with.
26:27 But if you persist long enough,
26:30 there is a reward on the end of the other side.
26:33 At the end of that journey there is a reward.
26:35 And I can tell you,
26:37 I've been the only black person in class
26:39 for a long, long time.
26:41 Long time.
26:42 And it hasn't always been easy
26:44 and people will always test you.
26:45 Yes.
26:46 But if you persist through the test,
26:49 you'll come out victorious on the other side.
26:51 Oh, wow.
26:52 You know, you just encouraged me,
26:54 you know, losing my husband on the other side
26:59 and being able to stay encouraged
27:00 and I believe
27:01 that we can encourage one another.
27:03 I want to thank you, Dr. Porter.
27:05 Dr. Porter, can I say that again?
27:08 I still haven't got used to it yet.
27:09 You haven't got used to that.
27:10 Well, I'm so proud of you
27:12 and I appreciate you and I love you,
27:15 and continue to live to be well.
27:17 I want to thank all of you for being with us today
27:19 on Live to be Well.
27:20 And let's look carefully
27:22 at the misconceptions of sports and academics.
27:25 Think closely, look at your own situation
27:29 with your own sons and daughters.
27:31 And take a good look, ask questions,
27:33 don't just accept anything,
27:35 make sure that they live to be well
27:38 because they are your children.
27:39 God bless.


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Revised 2018-01-18