Noble High School graduate Nick Tucker presented to SHS students on resilience, overcoming personal challenges, and how to “Bring Your B.A.G.G.”

BY AZLINE MAURAIS, STAFF WRITER

Guest Speaker and Noble High graduate Nick Tucker came to Sanford High School on Nov. 3 to speak about resilience and how to overcome personal challenges.

According to Mrs. Bresnahan, one of our school counselors, this topic was voted on by students. The Sanford School Counseling department conducts a fall survey and one of the questions asked is about what topics students are most interested in hearing from a guest speaker. This year, the third most requested topic was to hear someone speak about overcoming challenging circumstances. 

During the presentation, Tucker asked the student body: “What can happen in your life if you don’t know how to process your emotions in a healthy way?”

Tucker then shared his own hardships throughout his life. His mother struggled with recurring addiction and he and his sister were in and out of foster care. At just eight years old, he was moving from Massachusetts to Maine and he didn’t know how to cope with the emotions he was feeling. He turned to cigarettes and fought with his classmates, teachers, and people of authority. 

Tucker went through high school finding ways to remain busy and constantly to distract himself from emotions he didn’t know how to deal with. He was a popular varsity athlete and an honors student and went on to play football at Colby College.

During college, both of his parents passed away and he couldn’t mourn them because he didn’t have access to his feelings. 

At this point in the presentation, Tucker discussed unprocessed emotions: Where do they go and what do they do? He answered these questions by stating, “They live in our body and in our unconscious. They determine how we involuntarily act to the world around us.”

Tucker was able to overcome his unprocessed emotions by facing them head-on. He lives by overcoming anything life throws at him and he expressed this to the Sanford High School student body. Resilience is defined by Tucker as the “ability to bounce back from challenges.” 

Toward the end of the presentation, Tucker summarized the purpose of telling his story: when we learn how to process our emotions and learn why we feel that way, we can move forward.

He encouraged Sanford to talk to someone trustworthy and lean on our community for support. He concluded with his famous acronym, “Bring Your B.A.G.G.” which means Believe, Aim, Go, and Grace.

“We have so many students facing a wide range of challenging circumstances in their lives,” said Bresnahan. “I wanted students to hear Nick’s story and recognize they are not alone and hope things in their life can get better. I hope students are inspired and feel empowered to make changes in their own lives when they hear Nick’s story.”

More information on Nick Tucker can be found at nickrtucker.com.