Find your superpower, best-selling author Richard Paul Evans urges Canyon View Middle School students

Written by Jeff Richards
September 25, 2023

CEDAR CITY — “I want you to find what your superpower is,” best-selling author Richard Paul Evans challenged hundreds of Canyon View Middle School students on Friday.

Best-selling author Richard Paul Evans signs copies of his “Michael Vey” books for Canyon View Middle School students, Cedar City, Utah, Sept. 22, 2023 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

“When you find out what that is, cherish it and get better and better, until it changes your life and changes the world,” Evans added as he spoke to a crowd of approximately 900 Canyon View Middle School students, plus 60 or so teachers and staff, who were gathered in the high school auditorium across the street from the middle school.

Evans’ popular series of Michael Vey novels features a middle school-aged protagonist with electrical superpowers who also has Tourette’s syndrome. Evans said he and his son, also named Michael, also have Tourette’s.

His own Tourette’s manifests itself in three main ways: various neuromuscular tics; a desire to touch sharp things; and a third one that is unusual and highly specific: a compelling urge to spit in the face of famous people, Evans said.

“I was at the White House with the President of the United States and all of a sudden, I realized I was going to spit on him,” he said as the audience laughed. “You do not want to spit on the president of the United States, because it’s very disrespectful. And he has very large men with guns next to him. So, I actually stepped away and then my wife stepped up and talked to Pres. Clinton.”

Regarding his affinity for sharp objects but not wanting to carry anything dangerous, Evans has taken to folding crisp dollar bills so that they are pointy.

To illustrate what his tics are like, Evans invited everyone in the audience to blink their eyes as many times as they could in 30 seconds.

Then, after the time was up, he said, “This is your homework: I want you to do that for the rest of the day.”

Best-selling author Richard Paul Evans speaks to Canyon View Middle School students, Cedar City, Utah, Sept. 22, 2023 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

Evans went on to talk about how he was teased as a child because of his Tourette’s. He related how he wanted to ask a pretty and popular girl to the homecoming dance but was afraid to do so.

However, at a class reunion several years later, he said, the woman came up to him and asked him, “Why didn’t you ask me out in high school? I’m sure you don’t remember, but I sat next to your sophomore year, and I had the biggest crush on you.”

Evans, whose first book was “The Christmas Box” in 1993, also related how, as a still-unknown author, he summoned the gumption to take an open seat at the table among several well-established authors at a book show. The next year, he said, he was one of the featured headliners at the same show.

Evans also spoke of how he discovered and developed his own superpower.

“When I was your age, I was feeling like something was wrong with me. I was really different,” he said. “But I found something — that I liked to write. And when I wrote things, people thought they were funny, or smart or good. So, I started to write more and more.”

He then encouraged the students to do likewise.

“Are you different than others? Absolutely,” he said, adding: “Your superpower comes from what you’re different at. And I have a secret for you. Everyone in here today has a superpower. Now, the thing is, you might not have discovered it yet.”

Evans said he remembers talking to a tough-looking boy once and asking him what his superpower was.

“I thought he was gonna say, ‘I beat up people,’ right?’” he said. “And he was like, ‘Oh, I can make babies laugh.’ And I thought that was the best superpower I had ever heard.”

Canyon View Middle School assistant principal Emily Langston thanks author Richard Paul Evans for his message to students, Cedar City, Utah, Sept. 22, 2023 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

Evans admonished the students not to downplay their own talents and abilities.

“When I talk about writing books, I just think anyone can do it,” he said. “But they can’t.”

“That thing is your superpower: something that’s very easy for you,” he added. “And so, you’re going to discount it, thinking anyone can do it, but they can’t.”

Canyon View Middle School assistant principal Emily Langston said afterward that Evans’s message proved popular with students and teachers alike.

“They loved it,” she said. “It was so good.”

Dozens of students went up on stage after the 45-minute assembly and had their personal copies of Michael Vey books signed by Evans.

Additionally, every CVMS student was given a free Michael Vey poster, which were to be handed out at school on Monday, Langston added.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Richards, a native of Salt Lake City with family roots in Panguitch, lived in Moab for 20 years before joining St. George News in 2017. Jeff is a longtime journalist and secondary school teacher. He and his wife Penny are the parents of five daughters. They also have three young grandsons. Jeff and his family enjoy swimming, camping, sightseeing, reading, and taking pictures.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @stgnews@moabjeff@stgnewssports

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