A Father’s Odyssey
At the 2023 Speaker Slam® Grand Slam, the Inspirational Speaking Finals held at CBC Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, Jay Kalryzian delivered “A Father’s Odyssey”.
Transcript
there is treasure to be found on adventure and in the summer of 2019 I found something Priceless on the mountaintops of Spain but this Story begins in the winter of 2014 and it starts with a myth something that grandmothers would say and honestly I never believed it because it never happened to me to actually be overwhelmed with happiness and Cry tears of joy but early one winter morning after 34 hours of Labor surrounded by midwives I was catching my first firstborn son and when I looked down at that beautiful little soul I was overwhelmed and tears of joy came pouring down I love that feeling
of fatherhood so much my partner and I decided to switch the traditional roles I became a stay-at-home dad and my days were spent with a small human hanging off of me I was covered in snot and drool and spit and it was awesome and then our Second Son came along and once again tears of joy came pouring down and these two little boys became my whole world it was all smiles and Giggles I made silly faces and had tickle fights I absolutely love being a dad and I don't want to sugarcoat it it was hard being a stay-at-home parent is a hard job the hours
are ridiculous you're constantly sleep deprived you never get a hot meal and the clientele is unbelievably selfish and rude they'll pee on you it's gross gr it's gross pee on you well after 5 years I was burning out I was giving everything I had to my family and I forgot all about me and as honorable as it is to put your family first it's no good if you drive yourself into the ground I miss things from my past like Adventure passion and poetry before I put down Roots I was a spontaneous outgoing Daredevil I was a spoken word poet who weaved words in a way
that made women weep but I wanted it all the joy of my children the exploration of the world I needed adventure and in the summer of 2019 I flew to Spain by myself for a week to train with Wim Hoff the Iceman this man is a legend with 26 World Records related to cold exposure and controlling your emotional state and there was a hundred of us in the Ping mountains and on the first day we're all standing around big blowup pools filled with water and six inches of ice and whim was ranting off for a bit and then he says okay listen you can go
meditate in a cave for 20 years to find your Center or you can get in the ice for 10 minutes go well I got right in up to my neck shot kicks in I breathe I focus I got this i got this blood's pumping body's numb I got this trainers start yelling 3 2 1 that's 10 minutes giddy laughing alive I was reborn I found the Bliss I could write a book about the week I spent with Wim Hoff learning to master my emotional state but the Pinnacle for me was this on the last day the whole tribe climbed up to the peak of a
mountain with an ice cold waterfall crashing down we laughed we played we screamed and then on top of the green Spanish mountains under the blue sky with the white puffy clouds I did something I haven't done in five years I performed the perfect piece of poetry for my Wim Hoff tribe called Happiness is free I love this world it's given everything to me a sense of wonder and a desire to inspire I literally screamed my art from the mountaintops and as my heart burst open and the words rolled off my tongue into their e eager open ears I was in Bliss I found the joy
of sharing my passion for life and the reason I'm telling you this story is because of the amazing thing that happened after when I was telling whim how happy these things made me feel he said well happiness is not in the ice bath happiness is not on top of the mountain it's in you it's always in you and I never forgot that that I learned how to tap into the love and joy already inside me see we are all responsible for our own happiness nobody else the treasure I found on top of the mountain is something that is in each and every one of us
it's the power to create your emotional state or as whim would say get high on your own Supply Adventure has led me here today with you to share this treasure the undeniable truth that Joy is not just a fleeting emotion it's the very essence of a life well-lived can all of you please put your hands on your heart there is an ocean of Joy flowing through each and every one of you may you discover it one tier at a time thank
Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.