I AM THE PROMISE

Yes, those are the famous words I have become famous for. Hell, it's even become my nickname. The Promise....who knew. Quick background to this whole situation. I got a call before school started from the PR department of OU. They said I was suggested as one of 12 students to be involved in a commercial campaign for the university. As usual, I didn't say no (I say yes to everything pretty much) and passed it off as just something small. Next thing I know, I'm all over TV, billboards, newspaper ads and yes, even the OU webpage.

So what's it like being "The Promise" of OU? In simple terms, how bout annoying. When the campaign first began, it was pretty cool. My parents flipped out when they first saw it. They called me instantly and the surprise and pride in their voice was great. It made me so happy to see that I had (and continue to) make them proud. Not only that, but be able to show them how the little boy they've worked so hard to be successful in life is on his way, slowly but surely. My friends enjoyed it too, giving them something else to make fun of me for. You know, something different than my TV theme song obsession or lack of basketball skills for a black guy. And for our show, it was cool to see that the university found OUR achievement special enough to showcase it in a promotional campaign. There are a lot of great things going on at OU but for them to choose OUR show meant a lot to me (and hopefully others).

As the days and weeks went on though, being "The Promise" simply lost its luster. Now, I have friends from all the way back in middle school coming outta nowhere just to say they saw me. Is that cool? Absolutely, especially since it's prolly my fault I lost touch with them. But when it comes to the point of 2-3 people a day, it can be a bit much. Then, the billboards popped up and yikes, talk about really hearing it then. The first three sightings were funny. The next 3 were okay. Then there were 20+ more sightings and feelings of people just HAVING to tell me and well, let's just say that at some point, I hope people understand that yes, I know I am on a billboard.

And then the website....yikes. It's bad enough people make fun of me for knowing a lot of people here at this university already. But that's because of things such as PreCollege, OUIM, Tour Guiding, etc..., not because of the OU homepage. So when I am sitting in class and hear people behind me whispering "that's the guy from the website", trust me, I'm not flattered. I'm actually kind of annoyed. My professors point it out (again, I already know...kinda hard to miss) and today, when I went to my high school, I had former teachers, guidance counselors and future Bobcats all saying they saw my mug on the homepage. And now that my family knows, my ENTIRE family and church family knows. Let's just say Thanksgiving and church were a little different this year than any other.

At some point, my fake smile and responses are gonna wear out...and what sucks is that it's not the people I'm mad at. They don't know that I'm tired of hearing about the commercial, billboard or webpage. They geniunely just want to show how proud, excited or surprised they are to see me doing well and the face of the university. I however, just want this campaign to disappear into oblivion and move on with my college career.

There are two things about this campaign that bug me the most. First of all, it's all this attention that I am getting. I try to be a humble person and I honestly mean that. I hate people who talk themselves up or just constantly feel the need to one-up others. It bugs the hell outta me. So when people tell me about the billboards and website, I try to just shrug it off. But when you hear it over and over and over again, shurgging gets harder and harder. I actually had one person tell me "I have a feeling that deep down you are a really humble person but it's hard when people keep telling you how great you are. If I were you, I'd be like 'yea, that's me. I'm that good' and eat up the attention". See, I can't do that. Whenever I do, I am strictly joking just to make fun of those who do. So yea, this attention is a bit much, which leads me into my next point...

The second reason why I despise this campaign is that is glorifying ME and not the show. The Emmy that was won was not MY Emmy. No, it was an Emmy won due to the hard work of over 30 students who put in countless hours all week and gave up their Friday nights to put on a kick-ass television program for a under-appreciated region. It was an Emmy well-deserved too for a student production that kicks the ass of any other production put on here at OU. It was an Emmy that proved that the show has been the best production ever put on air by WOUB. I mean, 3 Emmys in 8 years in no fluke. So when the words next to my face say "This Ohio student has already won an Emmy", it makes me cringe bceause I know how inaccurate the statement is. It should read "This Ohio student hosted a show that won an Emmy". Just a few extra words make the statement ring more true than ever. It doesn't make me look like a hero I am not.

So in the end, I am tired of this whole "Promise" thing. Will I use it on my resume? Absolutely. It'd be foolish not to. But will I forever announce to the heavens that I am the promise? Absolutely not. What started as cool has turned into an annoyance. So what is it like to be the promise? You probably already know since everyone has achieved some sort of their promise either in high school or college. You just might not be on a billboard or website...and trust me, that's for the better.