Ryan speaks at Civic Day lunch

'Just go out and be yourself,' the congressman told the high school students in attendance.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Pursue your own goals diligently, and don't let money or the preferences of others get in your way, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17th, of Niles, told high school students Monday.
"You ultimately have to do what is in your own heart, or you will never achieve real happiness because you'll always be living someone else's life," Ryan said.
Ryan, 32, spoke to a luncheon that was part of the Trumbull County schools' annual Civic Day conducted by the county's Educational Service Center. The lunch was at DiVieste's banquet facility on North River Road.
Earlier in the day, about 100 high school students from 20 school districts shadowed community leaders to learn about various jobs and their responsibilities.
Congressman's advice
"Just go out and be yourself, and do everything that you possibly can to express your talents, express your personality and be a good person," Ryan advised.
However, he warned: "If you start doing it just to make money, you'll get off your track." Money "will be a side effect of maximizing your own potential," he added.
"Go out and live your life. If you want to be an artist or a musician or an astronaut, go do it, and don't let anyone tell you can't," he urged.
"You will go through life, and you will have to struggle in order to fly," Ryan said, making an analogy to the struggles of a butterfly emerging from its cocoon.
"If you look at anybody successful in business, in politics, coaching or teaching, they struggled. They fell down. They made mistakes," he observed. "Everybody gets knocked down. You start to separate yourself when you get back up," the Congressman said. "That's the real key-- getting back up," he added.
Court observer
Chelsea O'Donnell, a Liberty High School senior, who intends to major in political science in college and go to law school, shadowed Atty. Deborah Marik, a probate court magistrate.
O'Donnell attended an inventory hearing in which a man and his sister were disputing division of their deceased mother's jewelry before Probate Judge Thomas Swift.
She then watched Common Pleas Judge Peter Kontos conduct a dozen criminal arraignments, mostly in drug cases, during a break in the David Jenkins murder trial, over which he is presiding.
"I really enjoyed seeing the inner workings" of the courts, O'Donnell said. The real courts aren't as exciting or fast-moving as the ones depicted in TV shows, "but it's still really interesting for me," she observed.
Marik concluded: "We have a lot of kids around today that want to be lawyers, and it's good to get them in touch with the practical side of what's going on."