I promise your investment in me will not go to waste
Sherri Shepherd recently surprised 20-year-old Chris Desruisseax with a new 2025 Nissan Kicks. Thanks to media mogul Tyler Perry, Mr. Perry is covering the insurance for the first year and provided a scholarship to continue his education. This occurred during her daytime talk show segment, “Feeling Good, Sharing Good,” which left Desruisseax speechless. Looking into the camera, he thanked Mr. Perry, saying, “I promise your investment in me will not go to waste.” Chris initially thought he was on the show to discuss perseverance and had no idea Mr. Perry would gift him a new car for his hard work and dedication. He said, “I want to make a difference in the world. Coming from a country like Haiti, I see firsthand the struggles for housing, food, and medicine. Knowing I’m in a situation where I can work and help, I plan on attending UConn to study international business and finance. I want to work hard, purchase property, and develop that property into hospitals, farmlands, and housing units to support the local community that raised me.” Born in Haiti, he moved to the U.S. and landed in Florida with his mother after the devastating 2010 earthquake, leaving behind his two eldest sisters and grandmother. Despite working three jobs, maintaining a 3.8 GPA in college, and being fluent in three languages—Creole, French, and Spanish—he starts his days at 7 a.m. and often ends at midnight, relying on public transportation and the occasional Uber when pressed for time. His heartfelt reflections on his late mother revealed the motivation behind his drive and perseverance to honor her memory. Chris lost his mother when he was just sixteen years old: “Her perseverance and strength drove me to become the man I am today. My mother meant everything to me, and she still does to this day, so that is never going to change. The way she always smiled and was there for me, you know, the way a mother should be there for her child. Growing up in Florida as an immigrant was tough. English is my most recently learned language—the third one—and the way I enunciated words wasn’t well articulated back then. You know how kids are in kindergarten; I was picked on. But I could always come home and find a smiling mother who was always there to welcome me.” Sherri then asked Chris what he missed most about his mother. “Her smile. Every opportunity she had, she would be smiling. Her smile was her strength, her resilience, her fire,” he said, mentioning that his mother’s smile and the values she instilled in him and his sisters keep him going whenever he’s struggling.
Watch more of this uplifting story on Sherri.
How can you use your influence to positively impact someone’s life and help them realize their dreams?
Courtesy of Sherri Shepherd Talk Show
