Dr. Mykee Fowlin wears a mask. Yes, he wears the itchy blue rectangles of fabric that we see everywhere; a shield from the pitiless pathogens that have taken over our world. But I’m not talking about that. Mykee Fowlin wears an invisible mask.  
 
During a year of virtual classes filled with naps and snacks, black boxes on a screen and zoning out, a sea of in-person masked students, eyes glazed with the reflection of the whiteboard, stopped and listened. Students put their phones down, stopped texting, reading, sleeping, and listened to Dr. Mykee Fowlins' unparalleled performance. This 45-minute presentation was not only a hiatus in the school day (a free period without classwork or tests or stress), but it was a pause from the suffering of masked and virtual learning.  
 
When teachers clicked on the link for this in-school virtual assembly knowing little more than the fact that a guest speaker would be presenting, most of us were skeptical, not knowing the treat that would be in store. Dr. Mykee Fowlin almost instantly demystified this uncertainty by diving straight into his quirky performance, wearing multiple masks. Dr. Mykee Fowlin, actor, psychologist, storyteller, poet (and a multitude of other things that are far from boring), gave an unexpected, offbeat, stunningly beautiful performance to White Plains High School students on April 19, 2021. This guest speaker dove deep, giving White Plains High School students and staff the message of hope we’ve all needed for this past year. 
 
Beginning his presentation wearing multiple masks shielding his face dramatized the uncanny opening moments of his introduction. Alluding to the masks we wear because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, he stated the unspoken reality for most of us, “We hate wearing masks [now], but before the pandemic, every morning getting out of bed, we’d put on an invisible mask.” This figurative invisible mask resonated with students on a personal level. “Who are you behind that mask?” he questioned further.  
 
“You don’t know me until you know me,” he continued, reciting the title of his presentation. Quoting the great Langston Hughes, Fowlin constantly circled back to the deep notion that he’s “still here.” Living through a global pandemic, this doleful notion carries weight for all of us. Without leaving enough time for students to process this enough to shed a tear, he continued. For all of the despondent comments, there were plenty of hopeful statements made, some with humor peeking through, including Fowlin proclaiming himself a magic-hunter. “I try to help people see things that no one’s really paying attention to,” he declared. 
 
One particularly insightful thought he shared was a philosophy he lives by, that he calls the “Japanese Tea Cup Philosophy.” This philosophy originated when Fowlin found himself questioning why the teacups are “so weird” at a sushi restaurant. He had grown up with teacups that have handles but he noticed that Japanese tea cups do not have handles. When he asked his waiter, “what’s wrong with your teacups?,” he shared to the group that he now realizes it was almost as though he was asking, “what’s wrong with you?” The waiter's response was kind and educational: he simply smiled and laughed, then lowered his voice and explained, “if it’s too hot to hold, it’s too hot to drink.” From this experience, Mykee explained that he learned an important lesson: people’s temperatures are far more important than their handles. “We believe our handles (race, country of origin, political/religious views, clothes, music, and other parts of our identities) are who we are but they are not.”  
 
The temperature of who you are is based on your stories, your experiences, and who you are as a person. This experience was not only a little blunder Fowlin made once, but it is deeper than that. From this experience, Fowlin learned the importance of understanding and celebrating individual voice and spirit rather than categorizing people into groups, and he now passes this message forward to others. 
 
In addition to sharing personal experiences, Fowlin used the experiences of made-up characters to help give a window into the lives of others. Once masked by a character, he was no longer Dr. Mykee Fowlin. When he got into character, he fully became it, whether it be a child who got bullied growing up, a gay football player, or a misfit teen. Using his incredible acting ability, he managed to fully embody these character's stories, making for an unexpected, stunningly beautiful performance, leaving students in awe. From each character we learned an incredibly important lesson.  
 
From the child, we learned that kindness is a secret weapon. According to Fowlin, “If you are able to outmatch someone’s cruelty by being kinder, funnier, or weirder, you can get them to stop.” From the football player, we learned to look past our own biases and stereotypes we might have, and to not “just settle for what you’re supposed to be," but rather "step up your game and be and do what you need to be and do.” From misfit teen Benjamin, we learned that differences are not only okay, but they are important. In the words of ‘Benjamin,’ “You laugh because I’m different, I laugh because you’re all the same.” 
 
Fowlin taught us that even when we are falling apart, things will get better, and even when we feel voiceless and useless, we have the power to make a difference. Fowlin saved a life by believing just this. 
 
In a follow-up interview, Fowlin told his personal experience transforming his pain into saving someone else’s life. “I was in this super dark space maybe six or seven years ago, and I’ll be honest I wasn’t even in a good mind space, but I started taking postcards, (I collect postcards), and I started writing letters to myself. And they were simple, they weren’t long things (in a postcard you can’t write much anyway), and I was writing things like, ‘hey, you’re beautiful, you’re not alone, don’t be afraid of your pain, I know you’re struggling but I’m so glad you’re choosing to stay.’ And I thought I would just throw it into a box. And what I started to do was...I had this idea...I traveled all around the United States [to different] Barnes and Nobles. And I’d go to the best sellers section, the teen best sellers section, poetry section, modern section, romance section, and I’d take out books and I’d just stick these postcards in. And my hope was that when some people would be having a bad day and they would be reading a book or they’d be looking through a book then they’d turn the page and come across a postcard that’ll simply say, ‘you are not alone.’ And that was the only thing that helps, like hey, if I’m feeling this bad, someone else might be feeling bad too, and when I put out the energy to help myself to heal but then gave it away that way, I realized that it not only helped me to heal but it could help other people.” 
 
 Around two years later, something amazing happened. After presenting to a small private school in Massachusetts, a girl approached him. She had received one of his postcards in a book the day after she got out of the hospital for an eating disorder, and she revealed to Mykee a shockingly beautiful truth. “Your postcard was the only thing that kept me alive that day,” she explained. In retrospect, Mykee admitted that he was shocked, as he had never expected his Barnes and Noble postcard project to turn into something so truly powerful. 

If we learn anything from Mykee it is that after all, we can make a difference, and if we understand our power, we can change the world. As he emphasized, “We are so powerful. It will not be a degree and it will not be your job that makes you powerful. You are already powerful.”