RALLY'S MESSAGE: `BELIEVE IN YOURSELF'; GATHERING WARNS KIDS ABOUT DRUGS

Much of Ken Davis' youth was wasted moving from one failure to another as he tried futilely to gain the approval of his peers on their terms.

But it wasn't until Davis was able to ignore that "function as value" mentality that he was able to become the successful person he is today.

Through a speech that combined humor with personal insights, Davis entertained a youthful crowd of about 800 Thursday as he admonished them to "believe the truth about themselves."

He was the keynote speaker at the first day of the Sixth Annual Healthy Lifestyles Conference, which was capped with an anti-drug rally at Cape Girardeau's Show Me Center.

The conference continues today at the Show Me Center.

"I'll tell you something," Davis, a nationally known motivational speaker and author from Arvada, Colo., said, "what you believe about yourself affects your behavior.

"I believe you have a choice. You can live for the best or you can accept second best."

Davis related how as an adolescent he was frustrated with his own shortcomings. A slender young man with physical impairments, he was unable to compete in athletics, the only boy in his graduating class from high school not to participate in a sport.

He told of numerous attempts that invariably ended in disaster. His first attempt at surfing, for example, left him buried under a wave, "praying for the little things air."

Or the time he tried water skiing.

"I said, `I don't know how to water ski.' My friend said, `It's easy. Just stand here on the dock and hang on to this stick attached the boat.'

"Why didn't he tell me about slack? And why didn't he tell me that when you crash, to let go of the stick. ... Did you know the human body can skip across water?"

Unfortunately, swimming trunks apparently can't, he quipped.

Davis said it wasn't until he realized his value was inherent and not based on whether he was accepted by his peers that he was able to discover her true talents. During his senior year in high school, an English teacher asked him to join the speech team.

"I said, `You gotta be kidding me.' All the guys in my school were walking around in letter jackets with macho things pinned on them basketballs and footballs," Davis said. "There was no way I was going to go around with a pair of lips hanging off my jacket."

Davis said that although he was tempted to be deterred because of his desire to be like everyone else, he gave speech a try. Of course, he was an immediate success, winning numerous contests and spawning a career that continues today.

Ten years after graduating, he was invited back to his high school to give the commencement address. No longer a gawky, self-conscious teen, he received a standing ovation.

"There were young men applauding, who had once beaten me after school," he said. "My English teacher was crying, and the kid who told me I'd never amount to anything was standing, clapping."

But as Davis sat down to bask in the applause, his chair collapsed, sending him headlong over the six-foot-high podium.

"Nothing will stop a standing ovation quicker than falling backward off the podium," he said.

But Davis said that while prone, he was faced with a choice the same choice everyone faces daily at every moment to "be bitter or better."

"As I lay on my back, I thought, `Why should I worry?' I knew where I was, they were the ones confused."

Davis said he climbed back on the stage and the standing ovation resumed. But the experience made him realize the importance of "standing firm," even when it's uncomfortable or embarrassing.

But he also told the story of a young woman he met while giving a speech at a school who failed to resist the urge to conform. Davis said the young woman was left permanently scarred after an alcohol-related car accident.

"She told me that she had wanted several times to say, `Let me out of the car,' but didn't," Davis said. "I asked her why not, and she said she was afraid of what her friends might think."

He said the young girl decided her own life was worth less than what her friends thought about her. "Every kid in those two cars were killed but her," he added.

Davis encouraged his audience to have the courage to resist drugs and alcohol, regardless of how unpopular it might be.

"What you believe about yourself will determine if you can stay free of drugs and alcohol," he said. "You don't have it to do over again. I'm here because I believe you are priceless, and I hope you believe the same thing."