Even on the darkest days, hope can be found all around you — whether that’s in a hospital awaiting surgery or in a lecture hall on a college campus. 

“You are someone's hope,” Tyler Merritt told Bryant students, faculty, and staff on February 19 as he related a deeply personal story of his cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recovery — all detailed in his latest book, This Changes Everything. 

Merritt — an actor, musician, comedian, and activist — said his friends, mother, and caregivers were the inspiration that got him through the removal of a 28-pound cancerous mass, and the struggle to learn to regain use of his body after surgery.   

“That whole room of nurses, the people who walked with me and cheered me on, they represented hope to me,” said Merritt, who was the latest speaker in Bryant’s Visiting Writers Series, hosted by the College of Arts and Science’ History, Literature, and the Arts Department. “Now, when I go home to Nashville, I know I can fight another day because, in Rhode Island, I have a room full of people who look like hope to me.” 

"I know I can fight another day because, in Rhode Island, I have a room full of people who look like hope to me.” 

At the outset of his presentation, Merritt warned attendees that he might cry.  

“That was something about me having this surgery; afterwards, I cried at everything,” said the author, who previously wrote I Take My Coffee Black, which covers the experience of life as a Black man in America. “My niece had me watch this cartoon called Bluey and your boy was crying.”  

As it happened, the tears were mostly held back in favor of humor, even when Merritt told the story of his mother informing him that he almost died on the operating table. He compared his doctors to basketball stars Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippin, and joked about racing little old ladies as he learned to walk again. 

“The life you're living right now is planting seedlings for hope, so live it hard and live it well,” he said. “Care for the person next to you. Try your best to hang out with people who don't look like you. Lean into your education as your teachers try their best to pour their lives into yours. Show up in places like this and have shared experiences. Learn how to love, not just on the surface, but deeply. Volunteer. Sacrifice. Help someone.” 

Nodding to his book, he concluded, “That hope changes everything.” 

Michael Dynan ’28, a Team and Project Management major, was moved by Merritt’s experience. 

“What was really interesting was how his story changed a lot compared to what he thought his life was going to be in college,” Dynan said. “He dreamt of being on Broadway and being a musician, and then it went in a completely different direction. What hit home was him saying, ‘Most of you are not going to be who you think you are in 20 years, but you're going to be better.’” 

Merritt’s health struggles hit home with Isaac Ssemambo ’28, a Marketing major who has dealt with similar challenges.  

“It was heartbreaking because he couldn't walk, but heartwarming in the sense that he was able to get through it,” he said. “It inspires me to keep going.” 

For college students, “it's okay to lean into this comfort of not knowing” what the future holds, said College of Arts and Sciences Dean Veronica McComb, Ph.D. “For this particular moment in time, that message of hope was especially important for anyone, but especially for our students as they seek to build a life for themselves.” 

Somebody is always feeling like the world is going to end, whether because of health, relationships, politics, or other stressors, Merritt observed.  

But even during times of profound societal upheaval, “You have real-life people with real-life issues," he said.  

“When you hear somebody say, this is the worst thing that's ever happened, I’m like, ‘No, no, no, no, I was just in a hospital last week. I heard somebody die next to me,’” Merritt said. “I would take this moment here over that moment any day of the week. It’s all about perspective.”