Sunday Night With John: I'm Still Here!

“I’m Still Here,” a former college classmate shouted after making a three-point shot to tie an intramural basketball game.  My friends and I immediately made eye contact and broke out in laughter at the boisterous show of emotion for a meaningless intramural game.  It must have been an important moment for the guy to declare, “I’m Still Here!” I would include about a million more explanation points to drive home how forcible the declaration was but I don’t want to make you scroll down two pages to continue reading. This statement moved into my friends and my vernacular. “Has anyone seen Scottie?, I ask. “I’m Still Hereee!” replies Scottie. It would also come out when someone would hit a big shot playing bags at a tailgate... “I’m still here!” Or one of us asks how our jobs were going, “I’m still here!” It makes us giggle and cackle like a bunch of turkeys.

The odd thing about the saying “I’m still here,” staying prevalent in my life is that it has made me realize the joke has truth hidden deep within it. There is great power in still being here. A cancer survivor yelling, “I’m still here” is profoundly powerful.  A person who worked through their addiction issues, stating to their loved ones, “I’m still here” is powerfully inspiring. An overlooked homeless person whispering to anyone, maybe even to themselves, “I’m still here,” is a vivid reminder of those still struggling. Roughly ten years ago I started public speaking with just the backing of my brother, two professors, and my belief that I could change the way we look at traumatic moments and emotional expression. I didn’t know if I would get one gig after my initial appearance my helpful professor arranged for me, yet I get to become the butt of my own joke and scream, “I’m still here!”

Before I was still here, I had to begin behind a podium in a room full of my professors with my right leg pulsating throughout my 90 minute presentation. I was all heart and emotions as I poured out my story of my father dying at age 14 and witnessing the death of my best friend at 17. I  recounted my fall and rise from being a teenager who was an underage alcoholic riddled with anger outbursts, depression swings and suicidal thinking. Since the fateful moment I threw myself into changing the way we look at traumatic events, emotional health, and core shattering moments. As I have shared my story, others began to share their stories and allowed their difficult emotions to surface. Through those interactions I came to realize my mission had a tagline: Share Emotions, Emotions Matter.  I have carved out an audience as I create meaningful presentations littered with laughter, togetherness, and healing as far east as Buffalo, New York with stops in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and all over Iowa.

After ten years of polishing of my talk, I have improved my presentation through tedious practice and painful feedback.  I gained wonderful insight into how people process traumatic life changing events.  I discovered how deep my passion runs for creating compassionate, fun, thoughtful and intimate presentations to dispel the notion that we can’t talk about serious difficult topics like suicide, death, bullying and trauma openly and honestly. It’s not a sign of weakness to be emotional, it’s not a sign of gloom and doom to be sad and it’s not a sign of trouble to laugh when everything seems at it’s worst. My message of  “Share Emotions, Emotions Matter” can change lives. After all, “I’m still here,” telling stories, making people laugh at emotional problems and getting people to ponder and connect over moments meant to isolate us.  

To celebrate ten years of speaking and to give my message a chance to grow into a bigger audience, I’m attempting a first for John Paul Derryberry speaking engagements, to host my own event, the first ever Sunday Night With John: Live. The details of the event are in the beginning stages as I recently agreed with a couple of sponsors and am searching for other businesses or philanthropists to be a part of the event. I’m also reaching out to you, my readers of Sunday Night with John, and those of you who have been an audience member for one of my presentations over the last ten years to head to my go fund me page to help create a free event for a community in Iowa to host the first ever Sunday Night with John: Live. As my message has mostly grown from word of mouth from the people I have met along the way, I figured you guys would be the best place to go when looking for support.

Overall, the journey of creating and pushing forward a message of hope has exceeded my expectations and I’m a long way from the wide-eyed 23 year old who couldn’t stop making his leg shake. Maybe the most important thing to realize is after all the ups and downs of landing my first keynote, receiving my first reader response email, or contracting with places out of state is I haven’t lost the ability to lead with my heart and emotions. While the message is polished, while my delivery no longer comes from a podium, the soul of the message that compassion, care, and humor can change lives remains alive and pulsating throughout everything I do and that soul is why “I’m still here” today.

Thanks for your continued support and please spread the news about Sunday Night With John