On September 6th, the Cape Henry community was eager to lend their ears to Izzy Ezagui, his impactful story, and his humorous anecdotes. Binal Patel and Anne Porter Hudgens, both from the class ’20, when asked to express their thoughts on Ezagui’s narrative, were elated to speak upon such an influential figure.

As a new addition to the Cape Henry family, Binal’s words when addressing Ezagui’s message were nothing short of awestruck as she described her first CHC speaker as a strong role model who preached to his audience a necessary lesson: to be thankful for what you have. Binal believes Ezagui conveyed to the Cape Henry masses within the Dreyfus that morning that you are capable of doing anything if you set your mind to it and are dedicated enough.

Anne Porter, who always manages to observe various little details rather than just a singular big one, took away from speaker Ezagui that everyone has their own personal struggles, whether they be obvious or not, and we must treat everyone and their individual issues with the utmost respect and compassion. Similar to Binal, Anne Porter thought one lesson Ezagui was gracious enough to share with our community is not to take what we have for granted, as they could easily be taken away at any time.  The valuable reminders Ezagui projected through his remarkable story prompted Anne Porter to describe him as a resilient, passionate example of a hero, the kind of person which she said we needed more of to speak at Cape Henry. She expressed the perspective Ezagui awarded to the community that high school is only a short time in our lives, and we are working towards much larger goals by overcoming obstacles we never believed we could overcome.