Albert Einstein, The greatest scientist of our time, once said, “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” To look at someone and believe they’re privileged beyond reason leaves out the stories of many great men, including our 2023 Fulshear Valedictorian, Chancellor Joseph. Life is a rollercoaster, some have seatbelts, some have harnesses, and some require you to fight for your life, but in the end, it is the change you make for yourself that takes you off that ride into tomorrow.

To say that Chancellor Joseph’s early life was magical and fragrant is nothing more than a fallacy; his life was full of change, however, not in the typical ‘growing up’ way. At an early age Chancellor was faced with real life altering change as his parents were divorced in quite an abrupt way, “The lack of fatherly presence in the household changed the way I was going to grow up.” At this time, he lost the unimaginable for a kid in second grade, a parent; and not just any parent, but one that was distinguished, honorable, and of the utmost intellect just like Chancellor. His dad and mom splitting up would leave a mark on him forever. Little did he know at the time, this hurdle wouldn’t be the end.

In 5th grade, when puberty finally starts to hit, Chancellors only other male role model, DJ, was kicked out of the house over disputes with his mom. This left him with no other male role models in the house and alone at a crucial time in his development. The result left Chancellor as the only person who his mom could talk to, and truly let her emotions out with. This led to his mom being overly critical on him on a lot of aspects of his life. “My mom would always tell me, “You have all the book sense in the world but no common sense,” and I started to really believe it.” This really damaged his self-image and demoralized him, but this wasn’t the end for him, he wasn’t going to let it be.

Going into high school Chancellor started to pick his grades up, pick up extracurricular activities like band, and shot for the stars. He did this not only to prove everyone else wrong, but most importantly to prove himself wrong. He strove to prove he wasn’t stupid, dumb, or slow, but a man of true stature, intellect, and worth. This really shined when he represented us in the Texas State TEMA Band on Tuba in just his freshmen year, but at the same time he was making straight A’s. “It wasn’t by accident; I was really trying in school … I proved to myself my own worth.” This personal change by Chancellor not only changed his whole life, but everyone around him.

He was no longer someone he thought of as stupid, or without common sense, and it wasn’t just him who saw it, so did everyone else around him too. “Not only was I impressed by his management of schoolwork and extracurriculars, but I was proud to see how far he came and has come today to achieve such an astounding accomplishment like becoming Valedictorian.” said Meghann DeVilier his long-time friend.  

  Change isn’t something that happens by chance, it’s something that you must actively choose to want, to seek out, “I started listening to my inner voice, it would always tell me I could do more, why not practice more? Why would I play video games for three hours when I could practice and feel good about what I did?” Chancellor made these decisions by choice, he chose this because he understood himself; he understood why he felt bad after playing video games for hours on end, and he understood what it means to truly be at peace with one’s self, “A lot people don’t think, they will sit and watch Netflix or play video games to drown out their thoughts and emotions instead of understanding and trying to figure out why they feel this way … people need to sit down and think why they do these things, it’s like playing a game of darts blind folded. If you take the blind fold off you can strive for remarkable things, the blind fold represents understanding yourself.” For people like Chancellor the blind fold was personal trauma, however what separates him is people are scared of change.  

  The fear in us all is what stops many from taking the stairs to greatness like Chancellor did, for change is intimidating in many ways, however being able to plant your feet in the ground and make change happen is what separates mediocre minds from the Chancellor Josephs of the world. Change is not always bad, but it’s most certainly not always good, yet life is a roller coaster, and only you can choose if you wear the harness or fall off.