Kay:
Welcome back to another episode of The Mentorship Quest! Today is July 23rd, this is Episode 144, and today we’ve got a quote for you that I don’t think that I can say normally…so…I’m just going to roll it out there for ya! *(Kay raps)* “Ay, Yo – I’m just like my country, I’m young, scrappy and hungry, and I’m not throwing away my shot!”
Shi:
OOOOOO! This is from Lin-Manuel Miranda (AKA Hamilton). And, obviously, we love, love, LOVE this, play…musical…work of art…masterpiece…
Kay:
…poetry…civics lesson….Ah, it’s incredible!
Shi:
It just came out on Disney+ a couple of weeks ago, and – if you guys haven’t watched it yet – DO IT! If you don’t have Disney+ yet, it is worth paying the $9 for the one month subscription just to get it so you can watch Hamilton and then cancel it! We had been hearing people talk about how amazing Hamilton is, and we’re huge fans of Lin-Manuel Miranda, so we could not wait to see it. And so, getting to finally see it was so good and it definitely did not disappoint…
Kay:
It did not disappoint even in the slightest! We fell in love with Lin-Manuel’s music from the Disney movie Moana, and knew of his fame through Hamilton, but had never engaged with the music and never watched it up until now! It’s hard when you haven’t seen a musical, because I definitely don’t like to spoil musicals for myself by listening to the soundtrack before engaging with it. So, getting to see it through Disney+ was amazing. I mean, this work of art is really something that has empowered me in a way I haven’t felt from a piece of entertainment in a long time…
Shi:
Exactly. And, it’s really inspired the both of us in so many ways. You know, our quest is really to make educational topics, character development, and empowerment teachings entertaining and accessible. And so, seeing it done at the level that it was with Hamilton, for the subject of history, was just incredibly inspiring. I mean, I don’t know if anyone walks away from watching Hamilton not looking up the history behind it. And so, you’re genuinely, extremely interested in a subject that usually you glaze over in school and you have a hard time not nodding off to…
Kay:
Well, we’ve all heard the stories of the “red coats”, and “the British are coming”, and “one if by land, two if by sea.” And, you know, we’ve all kind of heard the telling of the tale. But, I love that Lin-Manuel Miranda describes the character of Alexander Hamilton as somebody who really embodied hip hop. When we think about what hip hop has done for the black community in general, it has helped them to establish a type of music where they could rise to fame in a way that wasn’t with sports, and that wasn’t jazz, and that gave them a new genre and a space for their community. And, that’s exactly what Alexander Hamilton did. He came into this country as an immigrant, and he had an idea for a new way of doing government, and a new way of running the financials of a country, that no one had seen before. And so, I think it really allowed a different path to be born for immigrants in our country.
Shi:
It absolutely shaped the future of this country, irrevocably. I mean, he literally designed the capitalist system, which is the economic system that we still use today, and was also the first treasury secretary. But, his impact on history can be lost because he died earlier on in his life, and he didn’t get a chance to run for presidency. And so, we often hear of the Founding Fathers – Thomas Jefferson gets celebrated, George Washington gets celebrated, Ben Franklin gets celebrated – but Hamilton is arguably one of the most influential. And so, this musical helps us tell his story in a way that is so incredibly intriguing. And, circling back to this quote, which – (by the way) – we actually just wanted to use the most well known quote from the musical, but ANY quote would work because all of the writing is incredible…It’s lyrical, it’s deep, it’s entendre, and it’s amazing! But, this quote, “I’m just like my country, I’m young, scrappy and hungry, and I’m not throwing away my shot,” is a theme through the entire musical and we can take a lot from it.
Kay:
Yes! Well, as he says in this quote, he’s not going to throw away his shot. So, we want you guys to be thinking a little bit in this way, today. Not all of us are Americans here – as we’ve got an international audience – but, for right now, for today’s quest, we want you to pick up a little bit of the American spirit. And so, we’ve got a stretch quest for you today! So: Pick up that young, scrappy, hungry, spirit and imagine you’re going to do whatever it takes to get the things that you need and want in your life, and get out there and just shoot your shot, man! Whatever it is, get out there, summon all the courage you require, and shoot that shot! Are you ready?
Kay & Shi:
Let’s quest!
