GERMANNA’S INSPIRATIONAL FALL COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER IS EMBODIMENT OF PERSEVERANCE
Matthew Britt’s Germanna Community College Fall Commencement speech will begin this way:
“I’m going to start this right: My name is Matt, and I am grateful. I am a recovering alcoholic, a drug addict, an addiction survivor, and a liver transplant recipient…
“My path to graduation was not particularly easy. A lot of that was my own doing, and for which I hold only myself accountable. But I take pride that I persevered. Just the same as you; You should not take lightly the amount of perseverance and strength, fortitude, and resilience it took to get yourselves to this point…”
To say that Britt’s path to Germanna’s commencement speaker at age 37 wasn’t easy is an understatement. It’s been brutally challenging and equally brave and inspiring—and the liver transplant that saved his life may end up saving many more. He’s working as a peer counselor with a Central Virginia community service board and is transferring from Germanna to Old Dominion University in the spring to pursue a bachelor’s degree in psychology with the goal of helping others deal with addictions. He will double minor in human services and addiction and recovery counseling at Old Dominion.
Britt will be one of 441 graduates who will receive 802 degrees, certificates and career studies certificates at Thursday’s (Dec. 15, 2022) Germanna Fall Commencement ceremony set for 7 p.m. at the Fredericksburg Expo Center.
After graduating from Louisa High School in 2003, the Baton Rouge, La. native dreamed of a career in sports broadcasting. He’s quick on his feet and funny and one can see that it was not an unrealistic goal. But he says after high school he was drawn into the college partying scene. It sidetracked and almost killed him.
He says he went into restaurant work “to maintain that lifestyle.” He would drink with coworkers until the morning hours night after night. He says he “maintained a lifestyle of substance use and abuse and long work hours and kitchens in Charlottesville, Richmond, and many places in between.”
Except for a short stint as a furniture store salesperson, he worked at restaurants, cooking, serving, and eventually becoming a manager, through his 20s and into his 30s.
“I thoroughly enjoyed cooking,” he says. “I found a passion in preparing food and pleasing customers as well as the camaraderie hard work and dedication.”
However, in his 30s, “my substance-abuse issues had become more glaring, and I was starting to suffer consequences as my party lifestyle became more of a necessity than a luxury,” he says, and there was a price to pay. He was diagnosed with Cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease, fatty liver disease, kidney failure, gastrointestinal issues, and an overall diagnosis of acute system failure.
“It was certainly the lowest point in my life,” Britt says, “and I made a promise to my sister and my family that if I were to recover and receive a liver transplant, I would pursue a life of recovery from substances and be committed to helping those who have found themselves in similar situations.”
He says he was “intrigued” by the psychology program Germanna being offered online. It was a good fit as he recovered. “In the midst of a global pandemic,” he says, he “was urged to avoid people and situations where germs are found.”
He says Win Stevens, Germanna Coordinator of Office of Accessibility Resources, and GCC Psychology faculty member May Anne Ferrer embraced him and offered “every opportunity I needed to succeed as a student with a disability… I have not had a single encounter that was not focused on my success as a student at Germanna. I cannot say enough about the grace and drive that every employee I have encountered has shown me.”
Original source can be found here
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