On Wednesday October 6, Bryant University and SASS hosted “Wednesday with Mitch,” where best-selling author, Mitch Albom, was welcomed to speak to students, faculty, and the outside community. The award-winning author has collectively sold more than 35 million copies worldwide, been published in forty-eight territories and in forty-four languages around the world, and has been made into Emmy Award-winning and critically-acclaimed television movies.
Albom opened up his speech by giving a brief background of himself, leading to his time studying at Brandeis University, just 45 minutes away from here in Waltham, Mass. This is where he met Professor Morrie Shwartz, and his life changed forever. He told the heart-wrenching story of his lessons learned from Morrie when in college, and years later upon their reunion when Mitch would visit Morrie every Tuesday at his home and spend the day with him. Morrie suffered from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and was slowly dying. Albom’s story of his time with Morrie Schwartz, Tuesdays with Morrie, is now the best-selling memoir of all time.
Mitch Albom’s speech was heart-felt, inspiring, and quite humorous; as he lead us through the valuable lessons he has learned through life and wished he knew at our age. The most valuable advice we gained from Mitch was to not try and plan every aspect of our future, it will never turn out the way we imagine it being anyway. He quoted John Lennon, “life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” His words were directed perfectly to his audience, giving us all the inspiration that we need at a time of such confusion.
All attendants at Mitch Albom’s talk were given his newest novel, The First Phone Call from Heaven (sneak peak below), and invited to a book signing directly after the event. SASS did a great job choosing this speaker. Albom was well-spoken, comical, and truly inspiring.