Last night we showed you Etan Thomas's arrival in Belize. The former NBA journeyman power forward is a motivational speaker - who focuses on fatherhood, not fast breaks and free throws. He'll be speaking to mixed audiences throughout his time here, and today it was to a group of high schoolers - who, honestly, were more interested in stories about Steph Curry than they were in his positive message. But they did hear what he had to say; here's what they told me about it:..
Rosaline Williams, Maud Williams High School
"It really inspired me because I didn't grow up with a father and in my world, I think you would always need a father in your life, but now that I have grown up I see it differently. I don't think I need a father because I could rise up by myself without a father and with my mom"
Joshua Jacobs, Ladyville Technical
"One of the main motivation that he talk about is that when you come up from a ghetto family, that does not mean you have to stay in there. You could get out. You have other people or friends that will take you towards the wrong parts but it's up to you to get out of negativity. Everyone will have both negative friends and positive friends, but at the end of the day it's up to you."
Brandon White, Excelsior High School
"I see some children around my neighborhood don't have a dad and are in gangs and some of them have friends that are in gangs but still go to high school and do different stuff on their own without having their friends to think for them."
Etan Thomas
"We covered a lot today, but one of the main things I want to tell them was that they could be successful in life no matter what the situation is from. I grew up in a single parent household and so a lot of times Father's Day was a difficult time for me and they came afterwards and told me a lot of them are related to what I was saying and I just wanted to let them know not to let that stop them from being successful, for making the right decisions, the right choices and just tell them that their life matters. Because a lot of times if your father 
is not in the home you start to question if you are important enough. So, I just really want to instil that in them. I wasn't telling them anything that they never heard before but coming from a perspective of an NBA player just resonates a little differently with them, so that's what I try to bring. That's the reality of a lot of people who came before them. A lot of people use different coping mechanisms. You don't want to use negative coping mechanisms like drugs and alcohol or being with a whole lot of people from the opposite sex. So I talked to the girls and told them that a lot of times, the first person that you hear tell you that your pretty or beautiful, that your important or special is your father so, if you don't get that, sometimes you listen to any boy that gives you any kind of compliment and it impacts the decisions or choices that you make with men the rest of your life. You have to know even if you didn't hear it that you are special that you are beautiful. You can see some of their faces light up that they haven't really heard it before and it always hurts when you see it because you can tell. It's just really telling them that their life is important."
Tonight Thomas will have a free public presentation at the Bliss - which will also air live on Channel 7 starting at 7:30.
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