The last informational seminar, not quite being a class but knowledge for knowledge’s sake, was the speaker at Baruch in the session: “Sexuality, making peace with passion”
At first, we laughed upon seeing that a middle aged man would talk to us young adults about sex. The age difference made him feel foreign to me, and to talk to us about something so active and near to us in this 21st century pushed him away even further. With an interesting subject but an uneasiness, I was unsure that he could efficiently deliver his message to the crowd.
This veil of mistrust was dissolved through the man’s confident stance, smile, and above all, his enthusiasm. He spoke as if he really cared about what happened to us, and as if he was entrusting some sort of power to us. The power of knowledge. He referenced an example of a football player who did not have this gift of foresight and had sex with an unwilling participant… an action called rape. With a fool football scholarship, this man shared with us the fact that this boy killed himself. All of us so eager and ambitious in that room, and to reference a tragedy like that really caught our attention.
It was comical how he shared with us examples of unwanted affection with the student volunteer, which helped the presentation flow smoothly.
He is a trained speaker for a large organization, so it should be no surprise that I give him 4’s all around the board – his mission, his method, and his timeliness made for a great presentation.