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Good afternoon, everybody.

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Raise your hand if
your mom ever told

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you don't talk to strangers.

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Yeah, my mom-- that's what
my mom used to tell me.

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So my story today might make you
question that piece of advice,

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and it also might make
you question my first year

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self's decision making, but
that's beside the point.

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So my first year, I
woke up one morning.

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It was spring in March,
and it was rainy and cold

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outside but I was excited.

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And I was excited
because that day was

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the first day of the primaries.

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Now, I know everybody in here is
probably fed up with politics,

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but it really
didn't have anything

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to do with politics for me.

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For me, it was the
day that I would

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be able to cast my first
ballot in the United States

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or anywhere, for that matter.

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And for many people,
that may be a given.

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But for me, it was
a milestone in what

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was a long and personal
process because,

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as any immigrant knows, the
process of becoming an American

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or just coming to love this
country is not a given.

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It's something that takes
a lot of investments

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and personal time.

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And for me, it was just
something that I wanted to do.

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And I was really
looking forward to it.

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So I got up, I took
a quick shower,

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and I hopped on the
route seven bus.

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And this was my
plan for the day--

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I had a broken
phone in my pocket.

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That's a different story.

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I'm not going to tell
you how that happened,

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but I had a broken
phone in my pocket.

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I had to go to Batteries
Plus to get it fixed,

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and then somehow I was going
to get to the elementary school

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where I was going to
go vote in the primary.

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And so I hop on the bus, I get
on, I go to Batteries Plus.

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I had my first obstacle.

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It's not open for
another hour and a half.

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So OK, that's OK.

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Plan B, go to the
Cavalier Diner and enjoy

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some pancakes and eggs, like
any American would, I guess.

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And I'm sitting there, I have
my first plate of pancakes.

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It was good.

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And I start getting bored,
so I order some French toast

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with blueberries.

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Maybe that will
make me feel better.

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And I finish that,
as well, and I just

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start drinking
coffee at that point.

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I just-- I don't have
anything else to do.

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And this gentleman walks through
the door, and he's elderly,

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well-dressed and he instantly
catches my attention because he

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says--

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he greets the server by name and
he just sits down at a table.

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The table next to me, in fact.

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And the server brings
him his coffee,

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brings him his breakfast, but
he did not even place an order.

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He's clearly the man
of the house here.

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So I don't know if it was the
boredom, or the coffee buzz,

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or a combination of the
two, but I strike up

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a conversation with him.

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I say, hey, how are you doing?

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And I notice he has a
sticker on his lapel.

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It's the I voted sticker.

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And I say, you know what?

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I love your sticker.

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And we get into a
long conversation.

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Thank god, because I
had to pass some time.

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And his name is Will.

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He was a resident
of Charlottesville

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and had been for
a very long time.

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Actually he had
been here since he

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finished his time
in the Korean War

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and moved here with his wife.

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And after his wife
had passed away,

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he started playing piano at
the local retirement home

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and that's where he was
coming from that morning.

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And I got to share a little
bit with him about who I was

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and why-- where I was going and
why I was alone in this diner.

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And after a while,
I'd look at the clock

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and I see, OK, Batteries
Plus, it's open.

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I could finally go.

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And so I get up, but the
server, she was distracted.

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She was tending to other people.

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And he says, no, you can
go get your phone fixed.

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You can just leave your
things here, I'll watch them.

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That's fine.

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I say, OK.

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And I leave.

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After not really thinking,
I leave my backpack there

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and, keep in mind,
my homework is

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there, the ones that I spend
five hours on the day before,

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my laptop, everything.

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And I walk out of
the restaurant,

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and as I hand my phone to
the Batteries Plus attendant,

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it starts to hit me.

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I just left a backpack there
with a complete stranger.

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And I have to say, a lot
of you are looking at me

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like my mom looked at me when
I first told her this story.

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But I walk back, and I
notice something is missing.

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And it's not the backpack,
and it's not Will.

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Will is still there.

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It's the check on the table.

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It's taken care of.

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He says, young man, you have--

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you're a great person.

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I really enjoyed
meeting you today.

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I said, thank you very much.

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I was really taken aback.

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He says, how are you
getting to the middle school

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where you're going to vote?

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And I didn't have an answer.

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My plan was to find a
bus, figure it out, maybe

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catch an Uber.

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But then I look at my
phone and, of course,

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there's no Uber app on there.

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And he says, hey,
maybe I can take you.

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I can just drive you there.

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And so at this point, I just
think, OK, that's what I'll do.

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So I hop in this
fossil of a car,

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and it takes like three
tries to get it started.

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And we get there, and--

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we get in the car
and we drive there.

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It takes about 15 minutes.

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You know, I finally--

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like, this is it, you know?

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This is the moment that
I've been waiting for,

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the reason I woke up at 6:00 AM.

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And I get at the school and
I find out I can't vote.

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I had not registered.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I didn't even know you
were supposed to register.

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And yeah, it was a good time.

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And I tell Will this, and
he just shakes his head.

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And he says, OK,
well, do you want

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me to drive you back to school?

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And I say, sure.

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And so as we're
going back, he starts

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pointing out these buildings.

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Like, at UVA, and they're
only ones like, you know,

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Thornton Hall, the physics
building, the rotunda,

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and there's all these other
ones that he doesn't recognize.

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And this is when
I start to think

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about how old this man is.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Turns out, he actually
went to school here.

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So thank God for the honor code.

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And ultimately, I get
dropped off at Bonnie Castle,

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and one of my roommates walks
by and he sees me getting out

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of this random car, and he asked
me, what was that all about?

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And I just told him,
forget about it.

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And I don't think I told
anybody this story, really.

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My roommate at the
time, and my mom,

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she was not happy
when I told her this.

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Yeah, I didn't tell anybody.

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I just held onto it.

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And I and I sat in my
room later that evening

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and I reflected on this man
and how great of a figure

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he had been that morning.

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And only recently--
throughout my time here

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I have drawn on that memory.

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I thought about it
in the elections

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later that year, amongst
that cloud of political anger

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that I think affected
everybody's lives.

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It impacted me and I
thought about that moment.

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I thought about it last August.

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I remember sitting at home
thinking about how this could

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possibly happen, but
then I thought about Will

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and it gave me a
little bit of hope.

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And I thought about it
this week when I found out

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that there had been some
disparaging comments made

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after the Hispanic community
had put out a letter in response

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to the Ours to Shape campaign.

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And I also have
thought about it now,

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I think about it now as I
think about all the memories

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that I've made and the things
that I want to treasure

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after these four years.

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And to me, it means
a lot and I can only

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thank you for letting me
share the story today.

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[APPLAUSE]