Abbeville High graduate returns to AHS to encourage students to think positive

Lawrence Levy quickly had the attention of Abbeville High School students when he said he has been shot at, dealt drugs, spent time in prison after being found with 40 pounds of marijuana; and he thought he was a big man in Abbeville because he had money from dealing drugs.
Where did that get him?
It got him in trouble, along with most of the people he hung around with on the streets.
On Wednesday, the 1994 Abbeville High graduate returned to his former school to educate Abbeville High students on how to stay away from the road he took and travel down the right path in life.
His message was not rocket science. It is all about how you look at yourself, he said.
He told the 500-plus students the way to be successful in life is to “become a better me.”
“The first way to be a better me is through your thought pattern,” said Levy. “If you can’t think successfully, or think positive, then you will never be successful. The first failure is in your thoughts. You fail because you think failure. You fail a test because you think you will fail a test.”
The first step to becoming a better student is to stop thinking failure and start thinking positive he told the students. Also, when they wake up in the morning, one of the first words out of their mouth should be to tell them selves, “I love you.”
He reminded the freshmen they are no longer at J.H. Williams Middle School, and they should begin to act like young adults. Levy told them to get rid of their “elementary attitude” because they are in high school now.
Levy explained to the students to not to be content with a grade unless it is an “A.” If a student makes a “D” try for a higher grade and not to settle.
By hanging around students who do not care about school and not doing well, then they will drag you down to become one of them, he said. He told the students to find the smartest student in the class, the one no one hangs out with, and start hanging out with that student. “That person is going somewhere after high school,” he said. “That is the person you want to be around, not the guy on the streets doing drugs or drinking,” Levy said.
Levy reminded the students if they change their negative attitude to a positive one, then positive things will occur in their lives.