I want to shine so bright and yet be so
far these were the words of the 14 year
old me lying down at my friend’s place
after a really long day not caring about
what I’m saying I think I was 9 when I
noticed the beauty of it my family and
my dad’s friends family we’re spending
our session break and Leila doc I think
it was the second or the third night
when we were walking back from dinner
and my dad told me to look up so I did
and what I saw has been the most
beautiful sight I have ever seen I could
see our galaxy the Milky Way by a show
of hands can you tell me how many of you
have seen a starry night sky and no I’m
not talking about the painting a sky so
full of stars you don’t need the
moonlight I know stars are huge masses
of gas but do they even slightly
resemble that no they don’t and I know
that’s because of the millions of light
is of distance but let’s forget that for
the next few minutes from the age of 9
to 14 I didn’t care much about stars I
often found myself looking at them and
found them beautiful for that night at
that sleepover I realized that we humans
we were all like stars when a person
looks up in the sky but they see a tiny
lights illuminating it when a person
looks at a crowd but he is able to see
our tiny bobbing hurts
over the next few minutes I’ll try to
make you see some similarities between
people and stars that I see how are
stars born stars are born in molecular
clouds but the density and size of
particles is so high they keep
collapsing into each other giving birth
to hydrogen atoms those atoms in turn
combine and give birth to these gigantic
masses isn’t that how we humans are born
why does a star shine a star shines when
atoms of helium and hydrogen
combined together fuse together to
fulfill what is needed this keeps on
going inside their core and nobody has
any idea
does that not resemble us all our
feelings our emotions getting bottled
and mixed they create this mess inside
us the pain the hot happiness the joy
all of it inside us making us shine a
star is the friend once told me at the
perfect depiction of lost love and inner
pain how does the star die inner pain
star star dying on the inside you see
stars which are medium or small in size
start shedding their outer nerve similar
to a snake
they keep shedding back there turned red
and finally a white dwarf star is born
but the stars which are massive explode
into a supernova shifting the universe
with brand new stars and sometimes a
black hole in both these methods
something dies and out of that something
new something beautiful is born we don’t
know what a black hole is we have no
idea what’s inside us all we know is
that they’re born when any celestial
object is not able to withstand its own
gravity and it compresses into itself
the only celestial object capable of
having that amount of gravity is a star
but that drastic change
they keep shining so bright when we stop
noticing them and the next thing we know
they’re gone
they’ve turned into masses of darkness
we humans we’re not becoming like black
holes we keep our emotions or feelings
bottled with in us
these black holes they’re causing us to
try to fit in we keep changing ourselves
to fulfill what is needed or sometimes
just wanted by the people around us but
what we don’t realize is that in that
process we are losing ourselves we are
losing what makes us us while
researching for this talk I came across
this poem depression is such a cruel
punishment there are no x-ray scans no
blood tests no fevers no dashes carrying
people into concern no form of any pain
it’s just a process of destruction from
the inside as insidious as any cancer
and like cancer it is a solitary
experience a room in hell with just your
name written on it why is it that we are
so afraid to talk about problems like
depression or self-harm or just sadness
it’s not like they don’t exist we feel
that if we give that person time if we
let things be it will be okay but this
solution is never letting things being
the tragedy is that something always
changes why then are we so afraid to
reach out because we feel that there are
these certain traits certain title
sticks there if a person possesses
they’re good and these certain traits
and if they don’t possess those they’re
bad we need to open our minds we need to
stop with these predefined notions about
everything about how girls should behave
or about how guys should about how
science is not better than humanities
they’re both equal about how sad does
not mean depressed about how mocks are
not the end of the world about how weeds
a young
can have problems and can have stress
and can need help we don’t realize but
these predefined notions are making us
form labels in a mind how many of you
have seen someone doing something or
noticed a certain characteristic about
them and given them a label in your mind
then how many of you went on to tell
your friend about that label and a
that’s the same thing they told their
friend which time we don’t even realize
but it is that and only that label which
defines the person do we see what an
impact our opinion our ideas have people
years ago I think six years ago I read
this quote and Facebook and I don’t
think I’ve connected with anything more
people call me observant but that’s not
true
I’m not more observant than any other
person we humans we bleed emotion even
in the way we drink our coffee nobody
seems to notice though they’re all too
busy drinking their own damn coffee I
have a friend who goes to coffee stores
just to sit and observe people you see
they’re so easy to read the way they
talk the way they would walk the way
they blink when a person is not okay
that whole aura changes their eyes
they’re not able to focus on one thing
when they walk they don’t seem to have a
destination these little hints would be
noticed if we only care enough to look
god Sagan said the nitrogen in our DNA
the iron in our blood the calcium in our
teeth and the carbon in our apple pies
were made in the interiors of a
collapsing star we are all made of star
stuff the nine-year-old me found those
stars beautiful the 14 year old me fell
in love with them the almost 17 year old
me stands before you and I’m telling you
it’s a tragedy that I wasted so long
it’s a tragedy that I had to
with stars to notice that we humans
we’re all so beautiful I wish that you
take this dog is the lesson a lesson
that looking at the mask isn’t enough a
lesson that there’s always something
more that can be done if there’s a
takeaway I hope it is that you start
observing people start noticing the way
they walk the way they talk
people are easiest to read when they’re
hurting but if one only cares enough to
look I wish all of you stopped before
taking your sip of coffee thank you
[Applause]
far these were the words of the 14 year
old me lying down at my friend’s place
after a really long day not caring about
what I’m saying I think I was 9 when I
noticed the beauty of it my family and
my dad’s friends family we’re spending
our session break and Leila doc I think
it was the second or the third night
when we were walking back from dinner
and my dad told me to look up so I did
and what I saw has been the most
beautiful sight I have ever seen I could
see our galaxy the Milky Way by a show
of hands can you tell me how many of you
have seen a starry night sky and no I’m
not talking about the painting a sky so
full of stars you don’t need the
moonlight I know stars are huge masses
of gas but do they even slightly
resemble that no they don’t and I know
that’s because of the millions of light
is of distance but let’s forget that for
the next few minutes from the age of 9
to 14 I didn’t care much about stars I
often found myself looking at them and
found them beautiful for that night at
that sleepover I realized that we humans
we were all like stars when a person
looks up in the sky but they see a tiny
lights illuminating it when a person
looks at a crowd but he is able to see
our tiny bobbing hurts
over the next few minutes I’ll try to
make you see some similarities between
people and stars that I see how are
stars born stars are born in molecular
clouds but the density and size of
particles is so high they keep
collapsing into each other giving birth
to hydrogen atoms those atoms in turn
combine and give birth to these gigantic
masses isn’t that how we humans are born
why does a star shine a star shines when
atoms of helium and hydrogen
combined together fuse together to
fulfill what is needed this keeps on
going inside their core and nobody has
any idea
does that not resemble us all our
feelings our emotions getting bottled
and mixed they create this mess inside
us the pain the hot happiness the joy
all of it inside us making us shine a
star is the friend once told me at the
perfect depiction of lost love and inner
pain how does the star die inner pain
star star dying on the inside you see
stars which are medium or small in size
start shedding their outer nerve similar
to a snake
they keep shedding back there turned red
and finally a white dwarf star is born
but the stars which are massive explode
into a supernova shifting the universe
with brand new stars and sometimes a
black hole in both these methods
something dies and out of that something
new something beautiful is born we don’t
know what a black hole is we have no
idea what’s inside us all we know is
that they’re born when any celestial
object is not able to withstand its own
gravity and it compresses into itself
the only celestial object capable of
having that amount of gravity is a star
but that drastic change
they keep shining so bright when we stop
noticing them and the next thing we know
they’re gone
they’ve turned into masses of darkness
we humans we’re not becoming like black
holes we keep our emotions or feelings
bottled with in us
these black holes they’re causing us to
try to fit in we keep changing ourselves
to fulfill what is needed or sometimes
just wanted by the people around us but
what we don’t realize is that in that
process we are losing ourselves we are
losing what makes us us while
researching for this talk I came across
this poem depression is such a cruel
punishment there are no x-ray scans no
blood tests no fevers no dashes carrying
people into concern no form of any pain
it’s just a process of destruction from
the inside as insidious as any cancer
and like cancer it is a solitary
experience a room in hell with just your
name written on it why is it that we are
so afraid to talk about problems like
depression or self-harm or just sadness
it’s not like they don’t exist we feel
that if we give that person time if we
let things be it will be okay but this
solution is never letting things being
the tragedy is that something always
changes why then are we so afraid to
reach out because we feel that there are
these certain traits certain title
sticks there if a person possesses
they’re good and these certain traits
and if they don’t possess those they’re
bad we need to open our minds we need to
stop with these predefined notions about
everything about how girls should behave
or about how guys should about how
science is not better than humanities
they’re both equal about how sad does
not mean depressed about how mocks are
not the end of the world about how weeds
a young
can have problems and can have stress
and can need help we don’t realize but
these predefined notions are making us
form labels in a mind how many of you
have seen someone doing something or
noticed a certain characteristic about
them and given them a label in your mind
then how many of you went on to tell
your friend about that label and a
that’s the same thing they told their
friend which time we don’t even realize
but it is that and only that label which
defines the person do we see what an
impact our opinion our ideas have people
years ago I think six years ago I read
this quote and Facebook and I don’t
think I’ve connected with anything more
people call me observant but that’s not
true
I’m not more observant than any other
person we humans we bleed emotion even
in the way we drink our coffee nobody
seems to notice though they’re all too
busy drinking their own damn coffee I
have a friend who goes to coffee stores
just to sit and observe people you see
they’re so easy to read the way they
talk the way they would walk the way
they blink when a person is not okay
that whole aura changes their eyes
they’re not able to focus on one thing
when they walk they don’t seem to have a
destination these little hints would be
noticed if we only care enough to look
god Sagan said the nitrogen in our DNA
the iron in our blood the calcium in our
teeth and the carbon in our apple pies
were made in the interiors of a
collapsing star we are all made of star
stuff the nine-year-old me found those
stars beautiful the 14 year old me fell
in love with them the almost 17 year old
me stands before you and I’m telling you
it’s a tragedy that I wasted so long
it’s a tragedy that I had to
with stars to notice that we humans
we’re all so beautiful I wish that you
take this dog is the lesson a lesson
that looking at the mask isn’t enough a
lesson that there’s always something
more that can be done if there’s a
takeaway I hope it is that you start
observing people start noticing the way
they walk the way they talk
people are easiest to read when they’re
hurting but if one only cares enough to
look I wish all of you stopped before
taking your sip of coffee thank you
[Applause]
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