Junior Khaury El-Amin walks onstage nervously, takes a breath and begins to recite the poem he wrote, the words flowing out more easily as he goes along. He speaks about his father, a man he never knew, letting his words sink in with the audience. As he concludes, he looks up, his teary-eyed audience responds with applause louder than a bomb. He smiles, feeling like a weight has been lifted off of his shoulders.

El-Amin is a new student this year at Free State. He is involved in football, Can We Talk and the poetry team. Last summer, he moved to Lawrence after transferring out of an alternative school. El-Amin grew up in St. Joe, Mo. with his grandmother. Growing up without a father figure, El-Amin’s childhood proved to be a challenge.

“Back then it probably shaped me to be like the wrong type of person you know always mad,” El-Amin said. “‘Why you mad? Because I ain’t got no dad.’”

El-Amin co-hosted the talent show alongside junior Garrett Swisher, making quite an impression on the students with his lively presence. Walking on stage to show off a talent of his own, he shocked the crowd, performing an original poem called, “What’s Up Dad?” According to several students, there may not have been a dry eye in the room.

“He almost made me cry,” Swisher said. “If I wasn’t hosting I would’ve cried, but I had to keep it together.”

This deeply personal poem made an impact on junior Darian Lewis, El-Amin’s friend and teammate.

“I didn’t really know what to expect because he has a big personality,” Lewis said. “I grew up with my dad and just like the things he said in the poem touched me because it showed me how he feels everyday not being around his dad.”

Football coach Brandon Wolak challenged El-Amin to write a poem about something that affected him.

“Coach Wolak told me to write about something deep,” El-Amin said. “I know a lot of people here don’t know what it’s like to grow (up) without a dad, so I think it was good that I informed people.”

Despite having estranged parents, an ill grandmother and a tough school situation, El-Amin found a way to turn it around and now is doing better than ever.

“I gotta stay positive for my grandma because she stays positive,” El-Amin said. “I can’t hold her down.”

El-Amin feels a responsibility to inform students at Free State to appreciate what they have, because it could be gone at any moment.

“When I was younger it shaped me to just be angry all the time and think I had an excuse, thinking that my excuse would always be ‘I don’t have a dad,’” El-Amin said. “Now it kinda shaped me to inform males my age and females too that have a dad or in other circumstances have something that they don’t appreciate, just let them know that it couldn’t have been there at all or it could leave at any moment.”

Poem Transcript (provided by Khaury El-Amin):

Wassup dad,