That Moment You Learn The Meaning of Your Name — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:05my name is Sayaka mascot
3. 0:07quite a mouthful right I just get made
4. 0:09fun of a lot I remember kids would just
5. 0:11stare at me blankly or give this weird
6. 0:13face
7. 0:14I remember one kid when I said hi my
8. 0:16name is Chiaki goes girl that's weird
9. 0:19it was so bad and I would sometimes tell
10. 0:22kids my name was Brian or David just to
11. 0:26avoid the inevitable questions or scorn
12. 0:28now I grew up most of my life with my
13. 0:30mom in the Chicago area and didn't
14. 0:32really have a relationship with my dad
15. 0:34his wife my step mom would call from
16. 0:37time to time and come to check up to see
17. 0:39how I was doing I kind of felt that my
18. 0:41father didn't want anything to do with
19. 0:43me and that I was like a mistake in his
20. 0:46life and I started to build resentment
21. 0:49for that I mean I was doing things that
22. 0:52a father would be proud of I was getting
23. 0:55recruited by every major college in the
24. 0:56Midwest from the University of Michigan
25. 0:58to Notre Dame I was having profiles
26. 1:01written about me in the Chicago papers I
27. 1:03still hold the single-season rushing
28. 1:05record at my high school
29. 1:06you think fathers would be proud of that
30. 1:09but he never seemed to acknowledge it so
31. 1:13after school I didn't talk to him for
32. 1:16over ten years and didn't plan on it
33. 1:18until his wives contracted cancer and I
34. 1:23got a call from his son my older
35. 1:25half-brother and I felt compelled to go
36. 1:28down there and support him I don't know
37. 1:32why I mean I just thought he's my father
38. 1:36my family it's what you do so I flew
39. 1:41down there after the services was down
40. 1:43in Florida and at the airport my brother
41. 1:45and my father came to pick me up and my
42. 1:48father goes there is like we were old
43. 1:52friends
44. 1:55so there we are my brother who I haven't
45. 1:58seen in 20 years my father who haven't
46. 2:02seen her talked to in 10 years and
47. 2:03myself decided to order some Chinese
48. 2:07food and watch the game now think about
49. 2:10games is that their way for guys to talk
50. 2:13but not really talk you know I brought
51. 2:17some beers and we sent three masa cool
52. 2:21men holding beers sitting watching the
53. 2:25game the next day we were sitting there
54. 2:30looking through some old paperwork of my
55. 2:32stepmoms because she was the one that
56. 2:34kept everything in order in that house
57. 2:35as we're looking through us three men
58. 2:38trying to figure it out I came across a
59. 2:41family tree of the masa quest now I saw
60. 2:44all of the mascots that I knew that
61. 2:46lived here in America already and the
62. 2:48ones that still live back in Liberia
63. 2:50where we're from
64. 2:51but at the top of the tree I saw one
65. 2:54name Sayaka this name that caused me a
66. 3:01lot of pain growing up was sitting there
67. 3:04at the top of my family tree and I asked
68. 3:06my dad what does this mean and then he
69. 3:10told me a story of this great warrior
70. 3:12that United all the tribes of Liberia
71. 3:15and that the massacre was had to name at
72. 3:17least one son every generation sciata to
73. 3:19carry on that man's memory so as I stood
74. 3:23there in that moment I'm actually
75. 3:26uniting with my tribe again my family
76. 3:29and learning from him that my true
77. 3:31meaning of my name
78. 3:33Sayaka meant his United tribes
79. 3:38Oh
80. 3:41[Music]
81. 3:47[Music]