Applause filled the auditorium following W Mitchell’s inspiring presentation. Students gave him a rare standing ovation.

Prior to his appearance in assembly, Mitchell requested to be interviewed by a student leader so that he could get a feel for the students at Laguna Blanca.

Sophomore Pierce O’Donnell interviewed Mitchell and introduced him at the assembly.

Following Pierce’s introduction, students saw a video clip of former President Bill Clinton who also introduced Mitchell. Mitchell and Clinton have been friends for over 25 years.

Before Mitchell became a motivational speaker, he was in the military and he was a cable-car grip in San Francisco. He led an active life.

However, his life changed in an instant when he found himself in flames due to a horrible motorcycle accident. He received burns on over 65 percent of his body.

On the day of the accident he had just finished flying solo for the first time.

He recovered only to be in yet another horrible accident: an airplane crash in which he was the pilot.

It’s not what happens to you. It’s what you do about it.

What inspired students was his attitude and his views on life. These are what made the assembly truly remarkable.

Mitchell talked about how after the motorcycle accident, the recovery was hard but it helped him learn that he had the power to choose. “It’s not what happens to you. It’s what you do about it.”

“It was inspiring because he didn’t give up and it ended up helping him become the man he is today,” said junior Carys Davies.

“He didn’t make his misfor-tunes a tragedy, he came back from them and did something helpful for others which inspires me to not dwell on the past and move on,” junior Juliana Ozur said.

“Before I was injured there were 10,000 things that I could do with my life and these injuries were pretty tough, but when I thought about it, it took away about 1,000 things. So I have a choice, I can spend the rest of my life feeling sorry for myself because of the 1,000 things that are gone, or I can spend the rest of my life feeling good about the 9,000 things that are still out there that I can do. I choose the 9,000.”

In lieu of being paid for his presentation, Mitchell re- quested only a Laguna Blanca T-shirt.