Caption: Kyle Quilausing, founder of Stay Humble Pray, with Junior Chloe Steuhl
Picture submitted by Mrs. Mitschele
By: Sutton Rizzo
On October 2, a guest speaker visited Wallenpaupack to speak with the sophomore and junior classes. His name was Kyle Quilausing, and his speech was titled “The Power of Choices: How ONE Decision Can Change Everything.” He started the speech by telling us about his tour, in which he started in Hawaii. He then traveled to states such as North Carolina, Texas, California, and finished his tour at Wallenpaupack. He talked about his son who he had not seen in three weeks and how he missed him. He then started with the main focus of his speech.
Kyle grew up in Hawaii, and his house was near the beach. In the back, though, was a golf course behind a stone wall. When he was three years old, Kyle’s grandfather took him over the wall, gave him some golf balls and a club, and let him hit the balls. That started Kyle’s love for golf. At 10 years old, Kyle became the Hawaii Golf State Champion, which gave him the opportunity to go to the Junior Championships in California. Here is where he had his first encounter with Tiger Woods. Tiger ended up winning, but Kyle finished in fourth place. Kyle worked every day to become better at his crafts. He would get up before the sun came up and once it came up, he was on the golf course until his mom called him for school. After school, he would get his homework done as fast as possible and then golf until dusk.
This started a competition between the two, as they would try to best for each other every year. Kyle would end up as a six-time state champion, and had scholarship offers from many top colleges. He did not commit, however, until a college had someone fly out to his high school to offer him a full ride. Unfortunately, this only increased Kyle’s ego. Kyle’s teachers noticed this and warned him not to let it get to his head. That had no effect on Kyle, as he felt untouchable, and he got so cocky he threw a clay ball at his teacher, getting him kicked out of school and losing his golf scholarship.
After losing everything, Kyle was approached on the beach to try crystal meth, in which he tried it, and it hooked him into an addiction. Kyle fell into a dark time, as he became Hawaii’s most wanted criminal, and was arrested. His addiction was still over his head, as while he was in jail, he escaped, leading police on a 12-day manhunt, which included three high speed chases before he was captured. He spent ten years in prison, in which he had to work on becoming stronger to protect himself in prison.
When he finally got out, he knew he wanted to be better. He became a motivational speaker and has talked to over 400,000 students from across the world. He founded the company Stay Humble Pray, which his goal is to make students realize that one choice can change the trajectory of your entire life, and that be wary of everything you do. Kyle is in the process of writing two books, one of which is about 101 things that he is grateful for after getting out of prison.
