the blow of a whistle signals the end
the schoolyard game no more playing tag
no more hanging from the monkey bars and
no more trying to chase girls and steal
those kisses a small object can be a
powerful tool now when I grew up past
childhood games I was told to take all
right University and get the right
internship and get the right job if you
take all the right steps then you’ll be
happy I could then classified as a
well-rounded All American college
student it was still chasing girls and
trying trying to steal kisses those days
and so I moved on and I met a professor
who told me you need three things to be
happy you need love meaningful work and
creativity and this equation intriguing
so much that I wanted to explore for
myself and adventures can lead to
activism now when we go off on someone
else’s prescribed path we lose the
thrill of going out on our own
exploration we can we go we can we can
we can become so focused on the
destination that we sometimes lose focus
that could be graduating college or
getting that first real job and we can
find Anna numbing sensation starting the
same game my first year of university
people would have said out of feeling
well I I was very busy socially and I
was having a good time I noticed
something a very core level that there
was something fundamentally missing I
told myself this is what I should be
doing at this age and I use the idea
that should to dismiss any type of
questioning or lingering doubts that I
had all those doing and this focus on
the should allow this sense of a number
to set it at that point I knew I needed
the shock myself and at that point my
prescribed path in this world started to
unravel I became an explorer I wanted to
seek the rawness of this world and the
raw places I’m passionate about seeing
the more obscure harp fifth planet I
wanted to see the places off the beaten
track and so I’m going to share three
adventure stories with you that levy to
activism my first the adventures in the
Balkans help me explore the love of
humanity like I said I wanted to go to
places off the beaten track see places
at work untouched by tourism and the
thing about hitchhiking is that you’re
at the complete mercy of the people
passing by both are taking a risk and
both are hoping that the other isn’t
some crazy psycho ax murder person that
you see
the news and there is a genuine kindness
and helping a complete stranger get to
the next point to move forward I never
felt the love of humanity as strongly as
I did on the road every time that I
thought I was completely screwed that I
was stuck in some place that I might as
well just start bringing or building up
a small little Hut from whatever piece
of land that I was on that moment a car
always came with a stranger inside
willing to help one of the rides in
Albania now baney is an amazing place
the hospitality of that culture there is
truly incredible well I was waiting on
the side of the road this the sopita car
with this chain smoking Albanian man
pulled over and I went up with my
crumpled up map and he told me that he
couldn’t get any to the destination but
he’d get me a lot closer she also had
about ninety four ninety five percent
maybe 95 and ninety-seven percent and
all the conversations we had were either
prolonged games of charades grand hand
gestures and drawing pictures things
sometimes got lost in translation during
the trip he he asked me if I was hungry
fun fact I love food I’m always hungry
so the answer that is always yes I
thought we were going to pull over and
grab a quick snack by the side of the
road we ended up going back at his home
where I met his family his family’s
family his neighbors neighbors families
as well as the family goes and legitly
everyone brought everything they could
to create this feast with this random
looking stranger kid out of nowhere it
was
beautiful and by the time it was or by
the time I needed to leave they wanted
me to take a souvenir so I could
remember this her the Gimli taking
things off their walls and trying to
give it to me repeating the word
the kindness I experienced while the
road was was spectacular I felt the love
of humanity and traveling around the
West Balkans made me want to continue
exploring these places off the beaten
path these raw places adventures and
conflict zones help me explore
meaningful work always knew landed home
was going to end up in Africa I had this
natural curiosity and this odd pool to
the place that I just knew I wanted to
visit at least once in my life becoming
a conflict researcher gave me that push
and there was beauty and tragedies and
there was laughter in danger and this
has could have been one of the ra’s
places I’ve experienced so far I made a
contact while I was in central Eastern
Africa who knew the areas that I wanted
to go to I wanted to go to the places
that were touched by armed disturbances
places that people didn’t want to go to
and when you walk into the unexpected
you never know what’s waiting for you I
never knew what was ahead and I found
myself walking to a situation that I
shouldn’t have been no I found beauty in
the rural hills they were wrapped the
dangers of armed groups not all way to
one of the villages notice a man laying
down
as we got closer I saw blood I saw I saw
the wounds and I saw a lot blood this
guy was not alone there are others shot
execution-style this is the first time
that was exposed the monsters I later
found out that this is a common reaction
to when armed groups think someone will
just buy thinks someone is five not
necessarily a spy and I saw the darkness
of humanity another armed group tactic
is stealing kids from villages and
forcing them to be child soldiers and
each of the rebel groups have a
different hope for these kids the bigger
ones they they arm them with guns or
machetes the ones who can handle the
kickback of ak-47s the smaller ones too
weak and too small to carry weapons are
sometimes given noise makers like a
whistle and send to the frontline of
these rebel groups and I want you to
really pay attention to this next point
the whistleblowers are supposed to bring
awareness and then move people to action
Congo is at the complex place there’s a
it was the raw place that I found
meaningful work my adventures there
my adventures with an activist nonprofit
help me explore creativity my friend
Sean was also impacted by his
experiences in Africa and in 2008 he
visited Congo and he met boys who were
forced to be child soldiers and they
told us of the boys who were too small
to carry weapons being sent to the front
lines armed with a whistle to scare off
other rebel groups by the noise that
they made and in failing so they would
accept the first round of bullets this
story that he wrote and sent out into
the world ignited a creative
collaboration of individuals who are
taking their talents and investing it in
meaning and turning it into the movement
and falling whistles was born it was
created at a campaign with peace and
calm oh all we do is we find the
individuals who are in these war zones
or in these conflicts of give him
support we find the visionaries the
entrepreneurs who are wanting to rebuild
their communities to have a vision of
the peace in a whiffle a tool of war was
turned into a tool for peace after
graduating University i joined the
leadership of falling whistles I was not
content on being a bystander to in
justices I wanted to be an activist and
my exploration in the world of activism
help me be creative whilst while trying
to solve very complex problems and it is
hard to look at the atrocities across
the world I I get that
I understand that it is hard and
difficult to relate to the difficulties
of Congo i 100% get up yeah I know it is
so easy to say it’s not my problem
Congo’s one of the most resource-rich
countries on the planet and their
conflict minerals have been found in our
cell phones and our laptops and use
every day we are all very much connected
to this and we can’t find all the
solutions to calm these problems but
what we can do is help a complete
stranger get to their next point to move
forward my my adventures in the West
Balkans help me explore the love of
humanity adventures in conflict zone
help me for meaningful work I continue
to have the experience of finding
creative solutions with falling whistles
and I explored this equation the
happiness adventures can lead to
activism I found truth and what my
professor told me happiness isn’t a
destination it’s very much the adventure
of the journey what I learned is that
happiness wasn’t about trying to take
all the right steps that you can have a
perfect life happiness was an equation
you can find people along the way to
help and to serve happiness was a
process of finding what you were
passionate without happiness was the
and now not everyone has to go hitchhike
around the world or go to rural Africa a
lot of the things I did weren’t well
thought out by any stretch of the
imagination some were dangerous and
looking back really dumb but part of
being an explorer is finding your own
adventure taking action to be curious
about your own path where you can find
your own passion my path my prescribed
path unraveled due to my exploration
which led me to doing some of the most
meaningful work that I have done in my
life so far I choose not to be numb I
choose the shock myself I choose to
continue to see the rawness of this
world and visit raw places I choose to
see the monsters in the darkness of
humanity and monsters do not go away we
close our eyes they still exist when we
turn and look the other way we can’t
pretend atrocities don’t happen monsters
will stay where they are comfortable
where they are allowed to and the
darkness the stars shine the brightest
and we need to help support these local
heroes who are in these war zones who
are in these conflict zones who are
rebuilding their communities and leading
the way the peace and healing the
whistle
it elevates conversations is a tool to
bring awareness for peace it can move
people to action find the monsters
they’re hiding in the dark and be a
whistleblower for then justices the
world thank you [Applause]