Osmary Rodriguez Inspires ACT Graduates

Osmary Rodriguez, Regional Diversity Coordinator for Gilbane Building Company in Providence, delivered the keynote address at the fifth Amos House Carpentry Training Program (ACT) graduation on June 16th.  Eleven adults completed the 13-week program, bringing the total number of graduates to 50 men and women.  Rodriguez is a graduate of Johnson and Wales University and the Latina Leadership Institute, and is involved in numerous community and professional outreach activities. She celebrated, inspired and encouraged our graduates with a five-point message. Excerpts are below.

First: Life is a journey

Amos House...allows individuals to make a choice to move forward towards a positive direction of who they are and that's what life does -- teaches you to be who you are. It took me a while to learn that lesson, and I am still learning that life really is just about everyday experiences, teaching you moment in, moment out, who you really are. [E]very experience is part of this...Just recently I came to a crossroad: Do I keep on the same comfortable path of doing and being what I know or do I challenge myself to step out of my comfort zone? I chose that challenge...

Second: Live your life from truth and you will survive everything

You will survive everything if you can live your life from the point of view of truth. That took me a while to get, pretending to be something I wasn't, wanting to be someone I couldn't, but understanding deep inside myself when I was willing to listen, that my own truth and only my own truth could set me free. We are all faced with many choices and influences that can be positive or negative. As you begin this new chapter in your lives remember that as difficult as it may have been for you to get here…you ARE here today!

Third: Turn your wounds into wisdom

You will be and may already have been wounded many times in your life. You'll make mistakes. Some people will call them failures but I have learned that failure is really God's way of saying, "Excuse me, you're moving in the wrong direction."

Fourth: Be grateful

I am asking this graduating class, those of you here, [to] keep a grateful journal. Every night list five things that happened this day and in days to come that you are grateful for. What it will begin to do is to change your perspective of your day and your life. I believe that if you can learn to focus on what you have, you will always see that the universe is abundant and you will have more. If you concentrate and focus in your life on what you don't have, you will never have enough.

Fifth: Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life because you become what you believe

[I]f you were to ask me what is the secret to my success, it is because I understand that there is a power greater than myself that rules my life. [I]n life, if you can be still long enough in all of your endeavors - the good times, the hard times - to connect yourself to the source; I call it God. [Y]ou can call it whatever you want to. If you can connect yourself to the source and allow the energy that is...your life force to be connected to the greater force, anything is possible for you.