Andre Arissol addresses teachers at the Nene Education Trust's training day
Andre Arissol addresses teachers at the Nene Education Trust's training day
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00:00First off, I'm a big, big advocate of gratitude, so thank you for allowing us to be here and speak in front of you guys.
00:07I bet it's kind of weird because the teachers and like maybe our students are teaching you guys is very weird.
00:13So if you need to like stand up and stuff, then I know you've sat down for a while so you can do so.
00:18But yeah, very grateful to have you guys here.
00:20Everything that I'm going to kind of talk about in the next 15 minutes is nothing rocket science or new to you guys.
00:26It's just I think it's really important to renew, refresh, reiterate certain messages and perspectives,
00:32and kind of going in with a new page ready for September.
00:36Because being a student and then also being in your guys' shoes, it is not easy.
00:43And I think when we're younger, we definitely take what a teacher or any person who works in the school does for granted.
00:49So thank you for your guys' work especially, more so than ever, because I know it can be challenging.
00:54So everything we're going to talk about is based off what the perspective of the student is from a different lens.
01:03Okay, but obviously some of you have never met me before.
01:06So I think it's important that you know that who's this guy coming in and randomly talking to you about.
01:11So my name is Andre Arasol.
01:13And so I grew up in Northampton.
01:15Grew up three sisters and my mother in the household.
01:19So I was the only youngest boy.
01:20So that comes with its own problems.
01:23But for me, I had a really interesting journey with basketball.
01:28I was fortunate enough to allow basketball to take me across the world.
01:32I got a scholarship to America, playing for Great Britain.
01:35All these great things and check marks that I had as a dream when I was a young kid.
01:40But life didn't go that smooth for me.
01:43I grew up with three sisters and I was the youngest boy.
01:46My sisters were all professional dancers.
01:50And not just your average street dance.
01:52It was ballet, tap, jazz, modern, theatrical.
01:55All of those things.
01:56Because I was the younger brother, I had to follow suit.
01:58So I had my leotard.
02:02And I was like this big, this big.
02:04My mum cut my hair and it was all bad.
02:07It was all bad.
02:08So for me, it was hard to attach myself to something that I truly felt a purpose in.
02:16And for a very long time, I was insecure.
02:19All the normal things of levels of anxiety that a kid would feel.
02:22For me, it was hard to relate myself to anything.
02:26Because I wasn't living in my purpose.
02:28I wasn't looking at a vision of the people, mostly girls in leotards.
02:33Thinking, I want to be like that.
02:35And then one day I came across basketball.
02:37And basketball for me was something that took my life away.
02:40And it's interesting because when you think of basketball.
02:44The NBA, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, the Olympics, going to America.
02:49All of that glamorous lifestyle.
02:51But for me when I was younger, around 12 years old.
02:54Basketball was the thing for me that gave me a brotherhood.
02:57Because I never had male role models or male figures in my household.
03:02I came from a very fractured home in terms of my dad was abusive to my mum.
03:06He was in and out of the house.
03:08Even to the little things of not promising to pick me up.
03:11And he did.
03:12And all those things that kind of scar you as you go along as a child.
03:16I was a very emotional child.
03:18So from a young age I would live and operate out of a lot of fear and hate when I was younger.
03:23And so basketball for me was those coaches being father figures to me.
03:28Because they, yes, would push me to my limits.
03:31But that was what I was seeking for.
03:33And so for me basketball was more than just the game itself.
03:36It was allowing me to look at someone like Stephen Curry or Michael Jordan.
03:40And see myself in them.
03:42And I'm like, okay, there's a young black man that's achieved that is doing this.
03:45I want to resemble that.
03:47And at that point I knew that I could start taking my journey and my steps towards what I thought was an ultimate human being.