my friends in the queue si who checked
the other box my name is Kiran ward I am
a junior here at Mountain View High
School and I’m here today because I
think I have an idea worth spreading now
I want to ask you all a question
what do you think of when you hear the
word change
some people think of change for the
better
some people think of change for the
worse
some people think of changing for PE
some people think of like you know that
one older guy at the supermarket who’s
like taking a really long time to like
is taking a really long time and he’s
just like fishing around in his pocket
for change and like they have to open up
12 lanes behind all right let’s just
stick with this whose so-called change
for the better and change for the worse
now I’m here today because some because
people don’t really seem to realize that
not all of this changed for the worse
this stays as change for the worse to
get more into it let I’m gonna tell you
all a story let me take you back to 8th
grade living in Menlo Park California
going to Hill View middle school and
looking fly as hell as usual
I had a bunch of friends fun
extracurricular activities and I thought
everything would just be smooth sailing
from here that is until one day my
father told me that I would not be going
to Menlo Atherton high school like I had
planned instead he was forcing me to go
to Mountain View and become educated at
Mountain View High School all right I
mean all right first of all this is
literally ruining my life for like the
rest of it even though all of my friends
are like half an hour drive away I
thought I would never see them again
and yeah and also Mountain View High
School how in our original of a name can
you get all right I’ve never heard of
anybody successful or cool coming out of
Mountain View High School and worst of
all I’ve never even been to Mountain
View all right I I only knew like two
people who had ever seen Mountain View
so obviously this was the worst place
now as you may or may not be able to
tell I was a bit of a drama queen I at
first I didn’t want to give mountain
view its chance between being so being a
socially awkward freshman put out of my
element I thought I wouldn’t ever make
friends again and it really doesn’t help
when within the first few weeks of
school you get your backpack texts and
house search because they think you’re
going to kill the passage of time itself
but that’s a story for another day
nope I kind of felt lost like friendless
and pretty damn lonely that all changed
though one day in room 420 miss goods
room all right now the room is awesome
enough with miss code in there but it’s
made even better by the fact that every
day a bunch of people gather to play
super smash brothers melee on the
Nintendo game now most of you know super
smash brothers as that game that
everyone had on their weak you know it
has like Mario and like 400 other
characters you never heard of oh you
know that Meta Knight is like really
good and Kirby has that one move that
turns them into a rock that your little
cousin always spans but what you may not
know is that melee which is the second
has a has a gigantic metagame millions
of tournaments and play and players
worldwide and some players so skilled
they can take one of your lives without
a second thought
and I certainly didn’t know that going
in I just thought of this as that older
one that older version of that game that
I kind of played a few times on my way
so I watched this small group of people
playing this 15 year old game on a
console of the same age and I just
watched and watched and watched and as I
as I watch and as I watched these people
play from Jared the amazing Foxx player
to Lincoln the spammy peach and
broadcasting zone thinker SAE Angeles
usually one of them would just ask me do
you want to play too
so well usually I declined because I
mean I was afraid of getting like beaten
so bad that my parents would disown me
or something I I was afraid I was way
too afraid of losing to give it a chance
so I just kind of sat on the sidelines
and watched but one day I just kind of
started thinking nobody gets anywhere in
life by just sitting around doing
nothing if you don’t try you have no
chance of succeeding but if you lose you
still gain new experiences from it like
Wayne Gretzky said you miss a hundred
percent of the shots you don’t take
and I mean Lance Armstrong wasn’t the
first man on the mood by doing nothing
he wrote the eye of a dream speech and
freed the slaves making him the first
man on Mars yes I did fail freshman
history how did you know so on that
particular day someone asked me as usual
if I wanted to play next game and think
back on the idea of how I wouldn’t
change if I didn’t try I finally
responded with yes now I was finally
ready I had seen many of the characters
and time in my time watching them play
and
I thought Samus sounds pretty easy so I
decided to go with her and with that we
hopped into the match simply by pressing
the a button unsurprisingly I got my ass
kicked
chopped cooked and handed back to me on
a silver platter apparently people who
three people who play this game every
day of their life somehow managed to
beat a first-time player but I was not
deterred I kept playing and playing and
playing and losing and losing and losing
and losing and but I like played this
game I started to a death I started to
adjust I started to learn how to get
better for instance I learned that knew
that that B wasn’t the only button you
could press to do attacks new attacks
were as simple as press o press oh no no
no well that my slides are all up
pressing the a button to get better I
had to change an idea that free freshman
me would have hated and one of the
greatest things of this experience is as
I fell in love with this game it started
to open up new op and new opportunities
and make me Pete and meet and socialize
with people that I never even knew
existed
alright I want you all to raise your
hand if you have ever became super close
friends with someone because of like a
single thing you had in common a lot of
you see it’s quite a common thing like
for instance one of my best friends ever
since second grade became my friend
because I told him about World of
Warcraft all right and one of em and one
of my friends that go to this school we
became fret one of the main reasons we
became friends was through our love of
acting and hatred for eight frames of
input lag it’s only only a few of what
you will get that joke I’m sorry about
that
as I fell in love with the game it gave
me new opportunities and access to more
friendships and it all started with a
party game
from 2001 so by now you’re probably
thinking kiri what is this hot talk have
to do with me
also you’re incredibly attractive and I
want to go on a date with you to which I
say to which I say I am thank you for
noticing but I kind of want to get to
the main point of this talk I want to
tell you now that the reason I’ve been
rambling for at you for eight straight
minutes is because I want to get is
because I want to give you a message
friends can come and friends can go
making making friends is it can be easy
as just starting a conversation and
finding a common point friends and if
friends go don’t be discouraged because
everyone changes and sometimes people
change into things that may or may not
be compatible with you so well one
friend may change into someone who’s not
compatible maybe another person’s
changed into someone who you’d really
like friends don’t become discouraged
when something changes instead keep an
open mind because just letting yourself
be changed is one of the greatest
possible things you can do I found out
from coming to the school that change
can lead you to places that you’ve never
imagined like falling in love with a
2001 party game developed by nintendo
entertainment in Hal laboratories or
when your dad asks you if you want to be
in a play in third grade and you just
change can lead you down hundreds of
different roads some and sometimes just
it just helps to let it come to you
even philosophers who are thought to be
some of the smartest minds in history
have made a ton of comments on this
whether they’re recent or ancient chain
starts and change ends things from the
game from a game of hopscotch on the
street to the mightiest empires and
civilizations of the entire history of
the world change is a natural part of
life and it will happen to you I was
changed in so many great ways from
coming to this school meeting friends
discovering a new favorite hobby and
even getting to talk in front of a crowd
vote people at a TEDx event and that all
started simply by pressing the a button
thank you [Applause]