[Applause]
this is hunter when hunter was little he
saw his mom crying in the living room so
he went up to her carrying a spilling
glass of water and said here this will
make you feel better he also loves
calculus has four brothers and wants to
go to outer space this is Sara she has
been to 37 out of 50 of the states and
has collected a sticker from each and
put it on her water bottle that she
brings everywhere as a reminder that she
will visit the remaining 13 and this is
Jack he likes eating full bags of
Skittles all at once hunter Sara and
Jack are some of my classmates from my
high school shaman on college
preparatory in Los Angeles California
and I made them the birthday cakes that
they are holding I also made birthday
cakes for the other 317 students in our
graduating class okay let me explain
I had always made cakes for my closest
friends and brought them to school
openly on paper plates as a way to
celebrate their birthday and a special
delivery I’ve always found a great
importance and birthdays and cakes the
most quintessential way to celebrate
them so summer before my senior year I
had a thought what if I made a cake for
every single person in my grade what if
immediately I called the vice principal
miss Poole and asked her for a roster
with everyone’s birthday on it pushing
this crazy idea out of my head and into
reality I carefully planned out the next
year of my life
the procedure was simple really I either
talked to or texted each of my
classmates the day before their birthday
and asked for three things chocolate or
vanilla their cake flavor preference
what’s your favorite color for their
homemade frosting color preference and
tell me
story I asked each student first story
so I could creatively decorate their
cake but also so I could learn something
unique about each student then I would
bake ice decorate repeat sometimes
making three cakes a day other times
seven then I would bring each cake to
school and sing happy birthday to each
student when I found them if I was lucky
near by strangers would sing along like
when a waiter sings at a restaurant and
everyone joins in but more often than
not I sing alone as everyone in the
cafeteria stared at me and although I
sang this tune 320 times I got extremely
nervous every time I walked up to each
student but I knew that no birthday
celebration was complete without this
song then I would take a picture of each
student holding their cake and post it
to my newly made Instagram at NAT makes
cakes
sometimes insistently being featured in
my own posts the next day I would do it
again and again and again but despite
the seemingly repetitive process every
day was incredibly different just like
every cake I made and every student I
came to know remember Hunter he
facetimed me for hours telling me
countless stories as I made his cake his
mom actually walked in and joined the
FaceTime as mom’s awkwardly do and she
was the one who told me the story about
Hunter carrying the glass of water to
her Luke sent me private essays he had
written about himself and his love for
baseball and Nick sent me a text message
summary of his whole entire life using
emojis hearing these stories quickly
became my favorite part of this project
and my favorite part of every day now I
wish I could tell you that everyone gave
me a beautifully intimate story some big
personal statement but more often than
not I was told surface level things like
that they liked flowers or music or what
sport I already knew
played and then there was Dayton who
when I asked for a story told me to just
put a Lamborghini nevertheless I gladly
accepted whatever story from sports cars
to secrets knowing that it was exactly
what each student wanted to tell me and
exactly how they wanted to be
represented on their birthday for a
whole year my life revolved around cakes
and the people I was making them for
everything transformed everyday eggs oil
and water became something deliciously
edible my KitchenAid became my best
friend ziplock bags turned into
makeshift fancy piping tools my Toyota
Highlander turned into the NAT makes
cakes delivery mobile and my closest
friends and brother stubbornly became my
deliverers by default my homework
calendar filled with birthdays instead
of due dates dried chunks of icing
turned into new hair accessories my eyes
grew accustomed to the oven light and I
could hear the oven beep its readiness
just before the 24 minutes were up for
each cake to finish baking but most
importantly I came to learn learn and
love more than I ever thought possible
I tend to Rose tint all of my memories
so looking back feels like I
accomplished something beautifully big
but what if all I did was make some
random birthday cakes that people ate
because honestly I do not remember most
of the cakes that I made let alone the
stories attached to them but cakes
aren’t made to last they happen once
disappear and are remembered fondly
anyone can make a cake it’s actually
fairly easy as long as you preheat the
oven correctly but what Betty Crocker
cake mix instructions fail to tell you
is how to make and give a cake for
someone else I freely spent hours and
hours baking and decorating creating
little paintings on icing canvases
every single cake I made meant so much
to me each sprinkled with pieces of my
heart but watching each
cake be gobbled up and swallowed down in
the fraction of the time it took for me
to make them was my absolute favorite
part
I watched each student literally filled
with my love and attention because there
is something so long lasting about a
cakes ephemeral nature feelings remain
and the feelings of cakes and stories is
fresh in my heart I remember a lingering
fire that lived in my veins and fueled
me to continue and love
I remember love dumbstruck by the
sweetness of being I watched my school
become this place of daily celebration
where everyone was excited to see whose
birthday it was like a party that
everyone was invited to I remember
strangers help me helping me carry cakes
and teachers gladly letting me intrude
on their classes to make deliveries I
remember giving everyone something in
common and everyone something to look
forward to
Leilani texted me a week before her
birthday and told me that she had been
looking forward to her cake all year and
I remember my class giving back to me
Sophia insisted that I sit with her and
eat her cake with her new friends came
over to my house and helped me bake and
I even received some cakes from best
friends new friends and teachers so even
if I just made some random birthday
cakes then I just made some random
birthday cakes because cakes aren’t even
about cakes and I don’t even like baking
I was always sticky and the amount of
times I laid on my kitchen floor balling
in the middle of the night is
embarrassing Damien’s cake I dropped and
my dog pepper jumped in to be John and
kion’s but when I completely forgot
Joey’s birthday and apologized endlessly
he just said to me sincerely thank you
for making everyone’s life better I
don’t know if I actually transformed
anything or anyone
or even myself but maybe that’s because
nothing is ever really transformed only
transforming what I do know is that most
people’s favorite color is blue you will
get sick of raw cake batter if you eat
it every day and if someone was making a
cake for me and asked me to tell them a
story this is what I would tell them I’m
always asked why I made these cakes and
the simple answer is I wanted to get to
know everyone in my grade before we all
left and I did but honestly the idea
just collided into me we were thrown
into each other’s orbits it was love at
first think I knew if I ignored it I
would always have just thought what if
if something crosses your mind
act on it and commit it appeared for a
reason actions are what butterfly
effects the most beautiful thing is to
happen and the only way to even begin to
transform the world is to do do anything
ask someone to tell you a story kiss a
stranger do a cartwheel fly to India
give a TEDx talk and if you ever think
to make cakes for 320 people do it it will be more than worth it trust me
this is hunter when hunter was little he
saw his mom crying in the living room so
he went up to her carrying a spilling
glass of water and said here this will
make you feel better he also loves
calculus has four brothers and wants to
go to outer space this is Sara she has
been to 37 out of 50 of the states and
has collected a sticker from each and
put it on her water bottle that she
brings everywhere as a reminder that she
will visit the remaining 13 and this is
Jack he likes eating full bags of
Skittles all at once hunter Sara and
Jack are some of my classmates from my
high school shaman on college
preparatory in Los Angeles California
and I made them the birthday cakes that
they are holding I also made birthday
cakes for the other 317 students in our
graduating class okay let me explain
I had always made cakes for my closest
friends and brought them to school
openly on paper plates as a way to
celebrate their birthday and a special
delivery I’ve always found a great
importance and birthdays and cakes the
most quintessential way to celebrate
them so summer before my senior year I
had a thought what if I made a cake for
every single person in my grade what if
immediately I called the vice principal
miss Poole and asked her for a roster
with everyone’s birthday on it pushing
this crazy idea out of my head and into
reality I carefully planned out the next
year of my life
the procedure was simple really I either
talked to or texted each of my
classmates the day before their birthday
and asked for three things chocolate or
vanilla their cake flavor preference
what’s your favorite color for their
homemade frosting color preference and
tell me
story I asked each student first story
so I could creatively decorate their
cake but also so I could learn something
unique about each student then I would
bake ice decorate repeat sometimes
making three cakes a day other times
seven then I would bring each cake to
school and sing happy birthday to each
student when I found them if I was lucky
near by strangers would sing along like
when a waiter sings at a restaurant and
everyone joins in but more often than
not I sing alone as everyone in the
cafeteria stared at me and although I
sang this tune 320 times I got extremely
nervous every time I walked up to each
student but I knew that no birthday
celebration was complete without this
song then I would take a picture of each
student holding their cake and post it
to my newly made Instagram at NAT makes
cakes
sometimes insistently being featured in
my own posts the next day I would do it
again and again and again but despite
the seemingly repetitive process every
day was incredibly different just like
every cake I made and every student I
came to know remember Hunter he
facetimed me for hours telling me
countless stories as I made his cake his
mom actually walked in and joined the
FaceTime as mom’s awkwardly do and she
was the one who told me the story about
Hunter carrying the glass of water to
her Luke sent me private essays he had
written about himself and his love for
baseball and Nick sent me a text message
summary of his whole entire life using
emojis hearing these stories quickly
became my favorite part of this project
and my favorite part of every day now I
wish I could tell you that everyone gave
me a beautifully intimate story some big
personal statement but more often than
not I was told surface level things like
that they liked flowers or music or what
sport I already knew
played and then there was Dayton who
when I asked for a story told me to just
put a Lamborghini nevertheless I gladly
accepted whatever story from sports cars
to secrets knowing that it was exactly
what each student wanted to tell me and
exactly how they wanted to be
represented on their birthday for a
whole year my life revolved around cakes
and the people I was making them for
everything transformed everyday eggs oil
and water became something deliciously
edible my KitchenAid became my best
friend ziplock bags turned into
makeshift fancy piping tools my Toyota
Highlander turned into the NAT makes
cakes delivery mobile and my closest
friends and brother stubbornly became my
deliverers by default my homework
calendar filled with birthdays instead
of due dates dried chunks of icing
turned into new hair accessories my eyes
grew accustomed to the oven light and I
could hear the oven beep its readiness
just before the 24 minutes were up for
each cake to finish baking but most
importantly I came to learn learn and
love more than I ever thought possible
I tend to Rose tint all of my memories
so looking back feels like I
accomplished something beautifully big
but what if all I did was make some
random birthday cakes that people ate
because honestly I do not remember most
of the cakes that I made let alone the
stories attached to them but cakes
aren’t made to last they happen once
disappear and are remembered fondly
anyone can make a cake it’s actually
fairly easy as long as you preheat the
oven correctly but what Betty Crocker
cake mix instructions fail to tell you
is how to make and give a cake for
someone else I freely spent hours and
hours baking and decorating creating
little paintings on icing canvases
every single cake I made meant so much
to me each sprinkled with pieces of my
heart but watching each
cake be gobbled up and swallowed down in
the fraction of the time it took for me
to make them was my absolute favorite
part
I watched each student literally filled
with my love and attention because there
is something so long lasting about a
cakes ephemeral nature feelings remain
and the feelings of cakes and stories is
fresh in my heart I remember a lingering
fire that lived in my veins and fueled
me to continue and love
I remember love dumbstruck by the
sweetness of being I watched my school
become this place of daily celebration
where everyone was excited to see whose
birthday it was like a party that
everyone was invited to I remember
strangers help me helping me carry cakes
and teachers gladly letting me intrude
on their classes to make deliveries I
remember giving everyone something in
common and everyone something to look
forward to
Leilani texted me a week before her
birthday and told me that she had been
looking forward to her cake all year and
I remember my class giving back to me
Sophia insisted that I sit with her and
eat her cake with her new friends came
over to my house and helped me bake and
I even received some cakes from best
friends new friends and teachers so even
if I just made some random birthday
cakes then I just made some random
birthday cakes because cakes aren’t even
about cakes and I don’t even like baking
I was always sticky and the amount of
times I laid on my kitchen floor balling
in the middle of the night is
embarrassing Damien’s cake I dropped and
my dog pepper jumped in to be John and
kion’s but when I completely forgot
Joey’s birthday and apologized endlessly
he just said to me sincerely thank you
for making everyone’s life better I
don’t know if I actually transformed
anything or anyone
or even myself but maybe that’s because
nothing is ever really transformed only
transforming what I do know is that most
people’s favorite color is blue you will
get sick of raw cake batter if you eat
it every day and if someone was making a
cake for me and asked me to tell them a
story this is what I would tell them I’m
always asked why I made these cakes and
the simple answer is I wanted to get to
know everyone in my grade before we all
left and I did but honestly the idea
just collided into me we were thrown
into each other’s orbits it was love at
first think I knew if I ignored it I
would always have just thought what if
if something crosses your mind
act on it and commit it appeared for a
reason actions are what butterfly
effects the most beautiful thing is to
happen and the only way to even begin to
transform the world is to do do anything
ask someone to tell you a story kiss a
stranger do a cartwheel fly to India
give a TEDx talk and if you ever think
to make cakes for 320 people do it it will be more than worth it trust me
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