I have spent my 17 years moving from
country to country city to city st.
Louis Oklahoma Houston Aberdeen cologne
düsseldorf and now Amsterdam I always
think about the fact that 10 years ago
today this much migration within such a
short period of time would have been a
rarity but in today’s modern world and
its growing diversity this type MyType
of internationalism is becoming
increasingly common hence I stand before
you all today an international crowd at
an international school when I was
invited to come speaker today I had many
options of what I could talk to you
about I’m not a professional I have no
degrees and unfortunately I’m not a
child genius
so what do I talk about I came to the
conclusion that I can only really speak
about what I know and what I know is my
own life and my own human experience
which has been moving and flipping my
life upside down as I already said I’m
an international individual I’m also an
avid member of the Model United Nations
and have devoted the large part of the
last four years of my life
to debate and political legal studies I
am also a huge believer in humanitarian
rights which initially stemmed from that
M UN debate culture but I communicate
those beliefs through social media
platforms deeming it as human rights
advocacy so from all of this what do I
talk about I made the decision that I
would talk about the words yes and no
and how to cultivate a lifetime of
opportunity 2005 was the first year of
many in my life that encompassed
complete and absolute change change
meaning residency culture school friends
and the list goes on we moved from
Houston to Scotland my family along with
hundreds of other American expats under
the influence of oil companies
employment and relocation we lived and
socialized within a set bubble of
American expats all in the exact same
living situation as our
which meant that although we lived here
in Aberdeen we were continuously
surrounded by our own nationality and I
see that all around the world today
wherever I live and it’s an incredibly
difficult thing and I’ll tell you why
it’s a missed opportunity for
integration and the development of a new
variety of international two years after
moving to Scotland – my parents divorced
and it was a divorce of arguments and
tears my world not only changed forever
but it completely flipped on its axis
the world that I had known in the life
that I thought that I was going to lead
a normal life disappeared and there went
all of the opportunities that I thought
I was going to have we all had to start
from scratch in my family but my mother
had to start from scratch before me or
my brother she had to find a job and she
became an international school teacher
here in Aberdeen at the International
School of Aberdeen my seven-year-old
bubble my little seven year old world
changed forever within the space of two
years I learned that not only were
castles actually real but I learned what
marital separation meant and I learned
that my father would be moving to
Jakarta Indonesia suddenly my world my
tiny seed of a life went from being that
tiny seed of a life to being an entire
forest everything became huge and
everything became terrifying an
all-encompassing dark dense forest and
with that pop the expat bubble that we
had been a part of burst and dissipated
and completely ceased to exist we were
no longer a member of the oil community
and so like my parents marriage it faded
and without even realizing it my mother
my brother and I became integrated into
the world and culture around us
and we fell in love with Scotland and we
fell in love with the world around us we
dug our feet into the soil of that dense
dark scary wood and we began to grow a
new opportunity as I said my mother
became an international schoolteacher
and wants her contract us up here she
received a job in Germany and so that’s
what we did we moved we repotted our
plant and uprooted ourselves so let’s
talk about divorce for a second divorce
and I will tell you now and many others
who go through a broken household will
tell you the same is a nasty nasty thing
and it brings out qualities in the
people that you love and in yourself
that you never knew existed and forces
those characteristics to become their
primary traits at least temporarily it’s
like a survival instinct and it really
does take stomach it was easy and
immediate and human to feel and think at
the time that my parents divorcing was
an end and ending to all opportunities
and to everything that I thought that
was going to happen all preconceived
notions of a normal life it was easy to
give up and to see it as a terrifying
low that would only result in a plateau
at an equal low but my household
breaking is the biggest opportunity of
my life and I know that that sounds
really bizarre but bear with me I told
you a list of things that came from my
parents divorcing the ex pop bubble
bursting my father moving to Jakarta my
mom becoming an international
schoolteacher and us moving to Germany
divorce as gut-wrenching as it is
engendered all of these things the
digging in of our roots and the
integration into the Scottish community
means that we still have friends here
today who are family it means that
Scotland had to become
home to us in a way that very few other
places has been divorced the
opportunities sprouted my mom’s career
in international teaching and thus
sprouting mine as an international
student by moving us to Germany do you
see what I mean it if my parents would
have stayed together none of these
things would have ever happened and so
when my parents divorced and we moved to
Germany it’s the first time in my life
that I can remember thinking to myself
just keep going so let’s pause for a
second if I look back on my life and if
you all take a second right now to do
the same there is one thing that is true
for all turning points or outstanding
moments in our lives at the time of that
outstanding moment or turning point it
is never clear what will come from it
but luckily hindsight is 20/20 and we
can always look back on our lives face
our lives progression and see what led
to what how you got from A to Z even if
you had to stop at the entire alphabet
in between from seedling to orchard so
we repotted our plan and we moved to
Germany and the school was awful
it was terrible we entered there really
enthusiastic
but the honestly the experience we
regretted we regretted moving there
instantly the education was embarrassing
and the social community was even more
so although it was an international
school classes were taught predominantly
almost exclusively in German with no
option of English so I had roughly 8
hours of German per week and my mother
was depressed my brother was depressed I
was depressed as anyone would be after
coming out of a gut-wrenching divorce
and entering into a gut-wrenching job in
school and so it got to a point where we
thought what do we do and we got out of
it
my mother worked and worked and worked
to get us into a new situation from the
one that we were in into a new school in
a better school
and you know what that’s what happened
we went to a new school and so new
opportunity my mother was now the head
of the science department at this new
school in Dusseldorf and I was now
fluent in German from that eight hours
of German lessons per week at this
school I was bullied constantly and for
honestly perplexing reasons for my
fashion choices my household income and
for my aptitude being the new American
student from a divorced household in a
class of exclusively incredibly wealthy
German kids there was an instant
disconnect manifested between myself and
them and I tried really really hard like
a middle schooler does to be what I
thought I was supposed to be and what
they wanted me to be but I was different
the bullying hit a peak at the end of my
eighth grade year when I arrived at
school in the morning and I approached
my classmates near the lockers and they
all turned their backs to me they all
ignored me I was frozen out by literally
every 143 students complete silence and
this is the first time in my life that I
consciously recognized and seized an
opportunity so when they bullied me from
my clothing I changed my perspective to
see their criticism as an opportunity
for true individuality and I became a
kid with a unique sense of style when
they called me the poor kid I paid them
absolutely no attention because I knew
that I was proud about the fact that my
mother worked in the education sector
and frankly I thought our apartment was
cozy when they made fun of me for being
smart I began to tutor other students
and I joined the student council in
order to develop a voice and of
I became a student advocate and I put
myself in a position of power and that
has led to me becoming student council
president at every school I’ve attended
since so what I’m trying to say here is
that I tried to make my little world a
better one I saw the world around me and
the situation that I was in and I did my
best to make it as like beneficial for
me as it could be the dried up wilted
sapling that had been created from our
horrible experience at the school before
blossomed and flowered and life got
better next my mother got remarried and
we moved to the Netherlands where my
half-sister was born and I entered this
new country community in school with the
tall perspective that I was going to
relish in every opportunity that I could
and I was going to lead my fullest and
most beneficial lifetime I now have
friends from every corner of the globe I
quickly learned Dutch and I’ve traveled
the country for a debate opportunity
opportunity opportunity and I seized all
three and when I say that I intended to
lead my fullest and most fruitful
lifetime I don’t mean to say that I was
going to get a tattoo and go skydiving
and maybe backpack around Europe for a
few months I meant that I was going to
put into place what I learned and what I
had learned is that seizing opportunity
breeds opportunity if you open one door
it opens another ten if a door is
slammed shut take a deep breath turn
around and there’s another one waiting
all you have to know is how to see it
and if you can’t see it it will remain
shut but if you can set success if you
can successfully see all of your nose as
yeses and hear your nose as yeses that
door that opportunity will open I see
is planted and that is your life an
experiential path and this is true for
everyone this is true for all of you at
some point that seat is planted and it
begins to grow and at one point or
another in all of our lives in all of us
something happens that male ‘evil or
step on that plant but if you can
successfully change your thinking to
recognize that that seed that foundation
that was planted is still there then you
can successfully regrow yourself and
continue to build on yourself as a
person and on your opportunities and
slowly you grow upwards and outwards in
a trunk is formed a steady and sturdy
foundation of who you are and once you
take a step in a new direction when you
seize a new opportunity a branch is
formed and that branch will grow
outwards and upwards but it will stop at
some point halted an opportunity only
carries you so far until it stops but
once you take a new opportunity and
gendered from that first one a new
branch can continue to grow I will be
graduating in a few short months and
I’ve applied to to five top UK
universities three of which I’ve been
accepted to and received offers from
instead of focusing on the two notes
that I received I have consciously
chosen to focus on the three yesses to
contribute to my overall lifetime of
opportunity we all at some point in our
lives faced some sort of strain on or
threat to our human experience losing a
job illness or divorce but if you can
successfully change your thinking as I
explained the way that I have today you
can overcome it and you can continue to
grow so whatever it is that you each
individually have escaped today by
walking into this auditorium and giving
a piece of your precious time to me
leave here today and think of a
seven-year-old girl who has just
discovered that her parents are going to
split up and flip your situation turn
all of your nose into
yes and cultivate your own lifetime of
opportunity thank you
[Applause]
you
country to country city to city st.
Louis Oklahoma Houston Aberdeen cologne
düsseldorf and now Amsterdam I always
think about the fact that 10 years ago
today this much migration within such a
short period of time would have been a
rarity but in today’s modern world and
its growing diversity this type MyType
of internationalism is becoming
increasingly common hence I stand before
you all today an international crowd at
an international school when I was
invited to come speaker today I had many
options of what I could talk to you
about I’m not a professional I have no
degrees and unfortunately I’m not a
child genius
so what do I talk about I came to the
conclusion that I can only really speak
about what I know and what I know is my
own life and my own human experience
which has been moving and flipping my
life upside down as I already said I’m
an international individual I’m also an
avid member of the Model United Nations
and have devoted the large part of the
last four years of my life
to debate and political legal studies I
am also a huge believer in humanitarian
rights which initially stemmed from that
M UN debate culture but I communicate
those beliefs through social media
platforms deeming it as human rights
advocacy so from all of this what do I
talk about I made the decision that I
would talk about the words yes and no
and how to cultivate a lifetime of
opportunity 2005 was the first year of
many in my life that encompassed
complete and absolute change change
meaning residency culture school friends
and the list goes on we moved from
Houston to Scotland my family along with
hundreds of other American expats under
the influence of oil companies
employment and relocation we lived and
socialized within a set bubble of
American expats all in the exact same
living situation as our
which meant that although we lived here
in Aberdeen we were continuously
surrounded by our own nationality and I
see that all around the world today
wherever I live and it’s an incredibly
difficult thing and I’ll tell you why
it’s a missed opportunity for
integration and the development of a new
variety of international two years after
moving to Scotland – my parents divorced
and it was a divorce of arguments and
tears my world not only changed forever
but it completely flipped on its axis
the world that I had known in the life
that I thought that I was going to lead
a normal life disappeared and there went
all of the opportunities that I thought
I was going to have we all had to start
from scratch in my family but my mother
had to start from scratch before me or
my brother she had to find a job and she
became an international school teacher
here in Aberdeen at the International
School of Aberdeen my seven-year-old
bubble my little seven year old world
changed forever within the space of two
years I learned that not only were
castles actually real but I learned what
marital separation meant and I learned
that my father would be moving to
Jakarta Indonesia suddenly my world my
tiny seed of a life went from being that
tiny seed of a life to being an entire
forest everything became huge and
everything became terrifying an
all-encompassing dark dense forest and
with that pop the expat bubble that we
had been a part of burst and dissipated
and completely ceased to exist we were
no longer a member of the oil community
and so like my parents marriage it faded
and without even realizing it my mother
my brother and I became integrated into
the world and culture around us
and we fell in love with Scotland and we
fell in love with the world around us we
dug our feet into the soil of that dense
dark scary wood and we began to grow a
new opportunity as I said my mother
became an international schoolteacher
and wants her contract us up here she
received a job in Germany and so that’s
what we did we moved we repotted our
plant and uprooted ourselves so let’s
talk about divorce for a second divorce
and I will tell you now and many others
who go through a broken household will
tell you the same is a nasty nasty thing
and it brings out qualities in the
people that you love and in yourself
that you never knew existed and forces
those characteristics to become their
primary traits at least temporarily it’s
like a survival instinct and it really
does take stomach it was easy and
immediate and human to feel and think at
the time that my parents divorcing was
an end and ending to all opportunities
and to everything that I thought that
was going to happen all preconceived
notions of a normal life it was easy to
give up and to see it as a terrifying
low that would only result in a plateau
at an equal low but my household
breaking is the biggest opportunity of
my life and I know that that sounds
really bizarre but bear with me I told
you a list of things that came from my
parents divorcing the ex pop bubble
bursting my father moving to Jakarta my
mom becoming an international
schoolteacher and us moving to Germany
divorce as gut-wrenching as it is
engendered all of these things the
digging in of our roots and the
integration into the Scottish community
means that we still have friends here
today who are family it means that
Scotland had to become
home to us in a way that very few other
places has been divorced the
opportunities sprouted my mom’s career
in international teaching and thus
sprouting mine as an international
student by moving us to Germany do you
see what I mean it if my parents would
have stayed together none of these
things would have ever happened and so
when my parents divorced and we moved to
Germany it’s the first time in my life
that I can remember thinking to myself
just keep going so let’s pause for a
second if I look back on my life and if
you all take a second right now to do
the same there is one thing that is true
for all turning points or outstanding
moments in our lives at the time of that
outstanding moment or turning point it
is never clear what will come from it
but luckily hindsight is 20/20 and we
can always look back on our lives face
our lives progression and see what led
to what how you got from A to Z even if
you had to stop at the entire alphabet
in between from seedling to orchard so
we repotted our plan and we moved to
Germany and the school was awful
it was terrible we entered there really
enthusiastic
but the honestly the experience we
regretted we regretted moving there
instantly the education was embarrassing
and the social community was even more
so although it was an international
school classes were taught predominantly
almost exclusively in German with no
option of English so I had roughly 8
hours of German per week and my mother
was depressed my brother was depressed I
was depressed as anyone would be after
coming out of a gut-wrenching divorce
and entering into a gut-wrenching job in
school and so it got to a point where we
thought what do we do and we got out of
it
my mother worked and worked and worked
to get us into a new situation from the
one that we were in into a new school in
a better school
and you know what that’s what happened
we went to a new school and so new
opportunity my mother was now the head
of the science department at this new
school in Dusseldorf and I was now
fluent in German from that eight hours
of German lessons per week at this
school I was bullied constantly and for
honestly perplexing reasons for my
fashion choices my household income and
for my aptitude being the new American
student from a divorced household in a
class of exclusively incredibly wealthy
German kids there was an instant
disconnect manifested between myself and
them and I tried really really hard like
a middle schooler does to be what I
thought I was supposed to be and what
they wanted me to be but I was different
the bullying hit a peak at the end of my
eighth grade year when I arrived at
school in the morning and I approached
my classmates near the lockers and they
all turned their backs to me they all
ignored me I was frozen out by literally
every 143 students complete silence and
this is the first time in my life that I
consciously recognized and seized an
opportunity so when they bullied me from
my clothing I changed my perspective to
see their criticism as an opportunity
for true individuality and I became a
kid with a unique sense of style when
they called me the poor kid I paid them
absolutely no attention because I knew
that I was proud about the fact that my
mother worked in the education sector
and frankly I thought our apartment was
cozy when they made fun of me for being
smart I began to tutor other students
and I joined the student council in
order to develop a voice and of
I became a student advocate and I put
myself in a position of power and that
has led to me becoming student council
president at every school I’ve attended
since so what I’m trying to say here is
that I tried to make my little world a
better one I saw the world around me and
the situation that I was in and I did my
best to make it as like beneficial for
me as it could be the dried up wilted
sapling that had been created from our
horrible experience at the school before
blossomed and flowered and life got
better next my mother got remarried and
we moved to the Netherlands where my
half-sister was born and I entered this
new country community in school with the
tall perspective that I was going to
relish in every opportunity that I could
and I was going to lead my fullest and
most beneficial lifetime I now have
friends from every corner of the globe I
quickly learned Dutch and I’ve traveled
the country for a debate opportunity
opportunity opportunity and I seized all
three and when I say that I intended to
lead my fullest and most fruitful
lifetime I don’t mean to say that I was
going to get a tattoo and go skydiving
and maybe backpack around Europe for a
few months I meant that I was going to
put into place what I learned and what I
had learned is that seizing opportunity
breeds opportunity if you open one door
it opens another ten if a door is
slammed shut take a deep breath turn
around and there’s another one waiting
all you have to know is how to see it
and if you can’t see it it will remain
shut but if you can set success if you
can successfully see all of your nose as
yeses and hear your nose as yeses that
door that opportunity will open I see
is planted and that is your life an
experiential path and this is true for
everyone this is true for all of you at
some point that seat is planted and it
begins to grow and at one point or
another in all of our lives in all of us
something happens that male ‘evil or
step on that plant but if you can
successfully change your thinking to
recognize that that seed that foundation
that was planted is still there then you
can successfully regrow yourself and
continue to build on yourself as a
person and on your opportunities and
slowly you grow upwards and outwards in
a trunk is formed a steady and sturdy
foundation of who you are and once you
take a step in a new direction when you
seize a new opportunity a branch is
formed and that branch will grow
outwards and upwards but it will stop at
some point halted an opportunity only
carries you so far until it stops but
once you take a new opportunity and
gendered from that first one a new
branch can continue to grow I will be
graduating in a few short months and
I’ve applied to to five top UK
universities three of which I’ve been
accepted to and received offers from
instead of focusing on the two notes
that I received I have consciously
chosen to focus on the three yesses to
contribute to my overall lifetime of
opportunity we all at some point in our
lives faced some sort of strain on or
threat to our human experience losing a
job illness or divorce but if you can
successfully change your thinking as I
explained the way that I have today you
can overcome it and you can continue to
grow so whatever it is that you each
individually have escaped today by
walking into this auditorium and giving
a piece of your precious time to me
leave here today and think of a
seven-year-old girl who has just
discovered that her parents are going to
split up and flip your situation turn
all of your nose into
yes and cultivate your own lifetime of
opportunity thank you
[Applause]
you
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