Breathing heavily, Joseph Alibrandi ‘14, stared off into the audience trying to scurry up an answer for the man screaming in his ear. Thinking on his feet, Alibrandi answered a simple, yet complicated question.
“What do you want?” screamed the man. “What do you want out of the time in your life?”
Continuing to struggle to come up with the perfect response, Alibrandi replied with a common answer. He said, “I want to be happy.”
Fairfield University’s Student Association sponsored the event, called “What do YOU want?” featuring alumnus Michael Miller. Miller graduated from Fairfield with an English degree. Miller now works as an inspirational and motivational speaker.
Miller’s speech was a part of FUSA’s leadership development and career planning program and took place on Jan. 27 in the Lower Level Barone Campus Center.
Unhappy with the answer that Alibrandi provided, Miller continued to drill him to think deeper. After a back and forth battle about what it is that Alibrandi really wanted, he came to the conclusion, “I want to figure out what it is that I want, which could be awesome, and then go after it.”
“I fear something for college kids,” stated Miller, “there are more people in your ear telling you what to do, telling you how to live, telling you what you want. The only person that can define what they want is you.”
Miller explained that if you let someone else define who you are and what you want, then you will end up living someone else’s life.
Miller told students that if they have been lying to themselves or if they haven’t thought about it enough, now is the time to think about what you want in your life.
Junior Dana Lopez was touched by Miller and Alibrandi’s performance.
“It created a spark in all of us to look deeper into why we are at school and what we are really striving for,” said Lopez.
Miller told the story of a young man he encountered at a Fourth of July party in Chicago. Miller explained that the man happened to work for a large multi-national company, spoke a little French, worked in finance and dabbled with information systems for the company.
The young man asked Miller what he did and Miller responded that he is a speaker. Confused at first, the young man questioned Miller. Miller drilled the young man with his questions, “What do you want? Tell me right now!” to try and show the man what it is that he does.
The young man was shocked and responded, “ I want a cool house on the left bank of Paris, I want a lucrative contract with a multi-national company, one that gives you six to eight weeks vacation a year and I want to use that extra money and time to travel throughout Europe and Asia, Michael, that’s what I want.”
Miller said, “What are you doing now to get that?” Upset and unsure, the young man left the room.
Later that night, the young man came back to Michael and explained how he lied and “[he] said what he said because that is what [he] always said and it sounds good.”
The young man told Miller, “What I really want is to find a kick-ass wife who loves me for who I am. That’s what I really want.”
Later that year, he started dating a girl, got married, was relocated to left bank of Paris and even got what he originally said he wanted.
“Holy smokes, this guy not only gets the wife but he gets the freaking lie too,” Miller said.
Miller encouraged students to essentially be true to themselves, to find something that they truly want in life and to go after it.
Junior Nicole Miles said she took a lot away from Miller’s speech.
“Miller gave an energetic and thought provoking presentation Monday night,” she stated, “challenging audience members to recognize what they really want, and in doing everything in [their] power to achieve it.”
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