YOU BELONG HERE speech

This is a copypaste from my friends' facebook. Susan is a teacher from the US. 

Today she wrote this:

I gave my students the 'You Belong Here' speech yesterday. In my night class, I had this big guy get teary and say he was just about to drop out because he didn't think he was college material. Remember to give the 'You Belong Here' speech. The February Gremlins are FIERCE.

I have many versions (of the speech).

The Long Version Includes a pre-amble about how College Is Important and it will change their path, their children's paths, and probably their parent's path. How they will get better health care, have better job choices, be able to articulate themselves to doctors, their kids' teachers, their teachers, their parent's care givers...how they will LIVE longer if they have a job they love, and how their kids will probably too.

And then I go into the List of Things Successful Students Do.

We look at the list, and I point out "Getting Comfortable With Failure" and I say "Why do you guys think THAT is on the list?". Usually someone will say something like "because we all fail". And I will say "YES. And the hard part about this culture is that we stigmatize it. You not only get to make a mistake, but then we pile on shame."
I say, "You know how you can tell when you are learning?"
"You are making a mistake?" someone says from somewhere. "YES" I say, "Because if you didn't make a mistake, that means YOU ALREADY KNEW IT, OR YOU SHOULD GO TO VEGAS, BECAUSE YOU ARE LUCKY."
(Here is where I pause for laughter).

 
Then I say, "So. Getting Comfortable With Failure". That sounds like a nice idea, but HOW do we ACTUALLY do it?"
Usually, they shrug.
I say, "So. usually, when you are about to fail, you know it, and a little voice whispers inside your head (or sometimes it yells) "Maybe You Don't Belong Here."
"That little voice? " I say, "That voice is trying to help you. It's trying to keep you from pain. But in This Case? That voice is WRONG. Because I have been teaching for 20 years, and I have only met maybe two people who I thought MAYBE couldn't benefit from college, and none of you are it. So you need to tell your little voice gently (because they're just trying to help) but FIRMLY to be quiet and that YES. YOU DO BELONG HERE. And then? If you do fail? When you are getting up, You say it again. When you are walking back in to class, you say it again. When you are taking the test, you say it again. Because you do. You do belong here.