Students get life lessons from 'Omar' of 'Wire'

There he was, standing at the podium in front of the large classroom in Germantown High School, with the pronounced scar that zags down his face, telling them like it was.

"Everybody is not going to make it," the man told the students yesterday.

"The question is: Is it going to be you?"

A thought-provoking question coming from the actor who played stick-up artist Omar in the critically acclaimed HBO series "The Wire."

Michael Kenneth Williams' beloved yet intimidating character was last seen being zipped up in a body bag by a Baltimore coroner. Sadly, Omar had been whacked by a 9-year-old in a corner store.

Williams, 41, yesterday shared a few simple life lessons - learned from his native streets of Brooklyn and the Baltimore set of "The Wire" - with his audience of students, teachers, alumni, administrators and cops.

Some three hours after Williams' speech, a bullet struck a Strawberry Mansion High School student after the graduation ceremony at the Liacouras Center. He was shot at Broad Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue.

Life is tough, "a series of decisions," Williams told students. Learn to manage money, he said,balance checkbooks and pay bills on time. Research your options on the Internet. The people who surround you are the real heroes.

Williams pulled no punches about his tough life: dropped out of school in eighth grade, kicked out of his home by his "moms" as a young adult and did things that were out of character because he wanted to fit in.

The actor also reached out to students, some stunned, to find out about them. One, Akeithia Deal, 18, told Williams that she wanted to be an obstetrician. The audience applauded. She'll take part in an after-school program at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, a program for high-school students interested in medicine.

"I was scared when he was talking to me," Deal said. "I'm not used to talking in front of a whole lot of people, but I'm going to have to get used to that."

Again, as Williams said, life is tough.

The actor, currently in the movie "The Incredible Hulk," also made a revelation.

"I got a secret for y'all young'uns in case you don't know, in case nobody tell you," he told the students. "When you get grown and you go out in the world, no one cares about you.

"No one cares what you're going through when you become an adult. No one cares how you eatin'. No one cares how you livin'. No one cares how you payin' the rent."

They care enough to provide shoulders to cry on, "that's about it," Williams said. "When it comes down to how you going to make it happen, you're really on your own."

Most adults feverishly nodded their heads in agreement.

After he landed the gig on "The Wire," Williams said, "it looked like a money tree and I thought this money wasn't going to ever stop." He spent wildly like he was "16 years old."

"When that 'Wire' money got down to the wire . . . I felt very foolish," he said.

He suggested to students that they approach their studies like they approach their fun. Yes, go to the malls with your crew, but also extend that to study groups. He encouraged use of library cards and computers to research potential careers. *