Editor’s note: Former faculty member Marcus Ware presented the following speech about heart health during an Upper School assembly on February 18, 2015.

I would like to thank Ms. Brousseau for reaching out to me a few weeks ago and asking me to consider coming to Williston today to speak to you all. I would also like to thank Mrs. Pickrell and Ms. Jordan Sansone. As I understand it, they too have had their own experiences with Heart Health and are here today with me to bring an awareness to the community about this topic. Thank you, ladies.

Williston, thank you for having me today. I want to share something personal with you. In fact, even people in my extended family do not even know or understand my heart condition. By the end of this talk, I hope you will have learned something about my condition, will have been slightly amused by my humor, and will want to take steps in being aware of your own conditions as they relate to heart health.

Okay, let me take you back in time. It was January 1998. I was a junior at Springfield Putnam High School. And, like most seniors I was living up my junior year of high school. NSYNC was singing songs like, “it’s tearin’ up my heart when I’m with you…” and Backstreet Boys told me that I could say, “But my love is all, I have to give…!” Yes, it was the time of boy bands and I was having fun. My wife at the time, Beyonce, was part of a group known as Destiny’s Child… Okay, okay, no, I was not married, but I had to make sure that you were listening because, people, what we are here talking about today is a serious topic.

Continue reading →