hey guys how you doing so these days
I’ve been thinking a lot I’ve been
thinking about life quite a bit more
life it’s a great Drake album that was
just released a few days ago and in it
no I’m serious I’m serious it’s a great
album and in it he’s basically just
rapping about life what does life mean
how do you enjoy life more how do you
look at life from different perspectives
and points of view and he’s really
reminiscing on his past experiences you
know in the hood in the rap game and I
was listening to that so I’m already
thinking about more life right and then
Excel and mile tell me that the theme
for today’s events is taking flight and
they asked me to come for the talk and
some thinking about life I’m thinking
about taking flight and so to be honest
when they told me the thing was taking
flight my initial reaction was this is a
pretty vague theme right this is pretty
pretty cliche it’s actually pretty lame
it’s actually really late because taking
flight I mean that’s so taking flight so
I was kind of roasting them about the
theme and then at the same time I have
to admit the theme did resonate with me
a little bit because not to be even more
cliche but for me and for a lot of us
this is truly a year of taking flight my
birthday is in two days March 23rd so
I’m turning 17 I’m gonna graduate in a
few months some of us are also gonna
graduate hopefully we’re gonna go to
college and you know know I’m serious
I’m gonna leave this school and maybe
the cities that I’ve lived my entire 16
years in so that’s a it’s a pretty big
flight to take and that’s got me
thinking quite a bit about my childhood
and my experiences here and I was
thinking about taking flight listening
to some Drake and the story popped into
my head from back when I was 7 years old
so I’m coming home from a kiddy birthday
party on the east side right so picture
like a smaller cuter version of me I’m
holding a balloon because as you do and
you know what else do you do at kiddy
birthday parties right you bring home
balloons that’s your present that’s like
your your goody bag because booths are
great I mean life
would be totally boring without balloons
right they they float they they’re
squishy they make your voice change they
pop they flow it up so I’m walking home
with my balloon and I get into the 6:00
train it’s rush hour and you guys know
6:00 train at rush hour right so
everyone is staring at me I’m very
conscious that everyone hates me right
now because I’m bringing a big balloon
it’s like bigger than my face into the
6:00 train and there’s no space and it’s
getting crushed by people so I’m kind of
like cradling it like a fetus and I’m
being super careful with it right and
then somehow we make it through five
stops of the 6:00 train and it doesn’t
pop and no one shouts at me and then we
get out and we got off the platform we
walk out the stairs we enter the outside
world and I still have my balloon
somehow it’s pretty amazing and then I
see a pigeon or something I get
distracted and I just like let it go
and my balloon so you know one moment
I’m really happy about my balloon the
other moment I’m staring up and I’m
watching this little red dot get smaller
and smaller and fade away into the sky
that’s the kind of you know traumatic
moment that therapists talk about years
after the fact
like that’s the kind of is the kind of
it’s it’s not funny guys it’s it’s
marked me to this day I think about this
a lot and so you know I’m staring at
this balloon and I go through the five
stages the grief and everything I do
like a funeral song in my head and then
I turned to my parents and I asked kind
of the natural question that any
seven-year-old would ask which is um
where did my balloon go what happens to
my balloon right so my mom is kind of
done with me at this point because I’ve
just brought a balloon back five stops
on the 6:00 train and now I just lost it
so she gives me like one of those little
packs of gogo apples squeezed and she
says shut up and eat your applesauce and
my dad so I turn to my dad and ask him
the same question and he says well you
know son when kids like oh balloons they
become clouds and all the clouds in the
sky that we see today are balloons that
have been lost by kids and I thought
that was really beautiful but I also
realized it was a lie and and so the
next day I decided to try and answer the
question for myself because when you’re
seven years old and you got a question
like that in your head you can’t let go
of it it just keeps coming back and
pounding at your head right so I got a
bunch of balloons and I go to the Great
Lawn in Central Park
and in the middle of like apple trees
and birds and whatever like picnics and
I let balloons go and I look at them
with my plastic binoculars one by one
like where did these things go and so
that doesn’t really work turns out my
binoculars were pretty bad but I looked
it up and what happens to balloons in
the end is that the balloon keeps
floating up until it gets to layer of
the atmosphere where the air around the
balloon is so much colder than the air
inside that the balloon expands and pops
and falls on someone or something
so it’s pretty boring actually but I was
very happy that I found the answer to my
question and you’re probably wondering
why am I talking about this why am I
talking about balloons why am I talking
about Drake so it’s not just because I
asked you with taking flight it’s
because I seriously been thinking about
my childhood experiences and I realized
that I don’t think the same way that I
used to right when you’re a
seven-year-old and you walk down the
street and you see a balloon so many
questions pop into your head right what
happens to this balloon where is it
going and okay the biggest question that
I used to ask myself is can you drop a
balloon because like I dropped the
balloon but it’s going up right it’s
pretty cool and it sounds dumb to you
guys because you’re like mature and old
but for a seven-year-old that’s a like
really fascinating question and that’s
the entire point it’s that when you’re a
seven-year-old you’ve just come into
this world and everything every object
every person you see is something to be
curious about it’s something that’s new
it’s something that you’ve never seen or
experienced before and that’s why little
kids are so annoying because they look
at the world around them and they keep
asking you questions like why is that
chair red you know why does that piano
make noise why does this mic make sounds
how does this balloon float up and and
that’s why parents get so annoyed at
their kids but they’re just discovering
the world around them
and isn’t that a good thing what I
realized thinking back in the back of my
childhood experiences is that we think
of maturity in our society when we think
of maturity what is that you know what
happens when we grow up
we don’t really get wiser or smarter we
just become more blase about the world
around us we can look at the same
balloon as a seven-year-old and not have
any of the same questions pop into our
heads so what really happens when we
grow up is we forget how to ask why and
I think that’s a very dangerous thing
because if you think of all the great
people in the world all the great
discoveries in human history
think about what prompted those things
what prompted those things was ordinary
men and women having the courage to look
at the world around them and look at the
most mundane of objects and have the
courage to channel their childhood
imagination and ask why right I mean
when I go to Central Park now and I look
at a bird I think well it’s a really
fine looking bird has some nice feathers
when Charles Darwin looked at birds on
the Galapagos Islands he said what is
evolution and he changed the way we
think about life right when Sir Isaac
Newton looked at an apple he didn’t say
that’s a tasty like an apple he said
what is gravity and he changed the way
we think about physics when Steve Jobs
looked at an apple he said what is the
iPhone and he changed the way I live my
life and you know these are great people
these are not the moms who said shut up
and eat your applesauce these are not
the dads who say the clouds are made of
balloons these are that one guy who woke
up in the morning one day and pointed
his telescope to the sky and said that
is what happens to balloons these people
are still children at heart and I think
we should all try to stay that way so my
question for you to open up this
conference is after this is all over
when everyone’s done speaking when
you’ve walked up these stairs and out
those doors and back into the real world
what things are you going to see what
details are you going to notice what
questions are you going to ask thank you
[Applause]
I’ve been thinking a lot I’ve been
thinking about life quite a bit more
life it’s a great Drake album that was
just released a few days ago and in it
no I’m serious I’m serious it’s a great
album and in it he’s basically just
rapping about life what does life mean
how do you enjoy life more how do you
look at life from different perspectives
and points of view and he’s really
reminiscing on his past experiences you
know in the hood in the rap game and I
was listening to that so I’m already
thinking about more life right and then
Excel and mile tell me that the theme
for today’s events is taking flight and
they asked me to come for the talk and
some thinking about life I’m thinking
about taking flight and so to be honest
when they told me the thing was taking
flight my initial reaction was this is a
pretty vague theme right this is pretty
pretty cliche it’s actually pretty lame
it’s actually really late because taking
flight I mean that’s so taking flight so
I was kind of roasting them about the
theme and then at the same time I have
to admit the theme did resonate with me
a little bit because not to be even more
cliche but for me and for a lot of us
this is truly a year of taking flight my
birthday is in two days March 23rd so
I’m turning 17 I’m gonna graduate in a
few months some of us are also gonna
graduate hopefully we’re gonna go to
college and you know know I’m serious
I’m gonna leave this school and maybe
the cities that I’ve lived my entire 16
years in so that’s a it’s a pretty big
flight to take and that’s got me
thinking quite a bit about my childhood
and my experiences here and I was
thinking about taking flight listening
to some Drake and the story popped into
my head from back when I was 7 years old
so I’m coming home from a kiddy birthday
party on the east side right so picture
like a smaller cuter version of me I’m
holding a balloon because as you do and
you know what else do you do at kiddy
birthday parties right you bring home
balloons that’s your present that’s like
your your goody bag because booths are
great I mean life
would be totally boring without balloons
right they they float they they’re
squishy they make your voice change they
pop they flow it up so I’m walking home
with my balloon and I get into the 6:00
train it’s rush hour and you guys know
6:00 train at rush hour right so
everyone is staring at me I’m very
conscious that everyone hates me right
now because I’m bringing a big balloon
it’s like bigger than my face into the
6:00 train and there’s no space and it’s
getting crushed by people so I’m kind of
like cradling it like a fetus and I’m
being super careful with it right and
then somehow we make it through five
stops of the 6:00 train and it doesn’t
pop and no one shouts at me and then we
get out and we got off the platform we
walk out the stairs we enter the outside
world and I still have my balloon
somehow it’s pretty amazing and then I
see a pigeon or something I get
distracted and I just like let it go
and my balloon so you know one moment
I’m really happy about my balloon the
other moment I’m staring up and I’m
watching this little red dot get smaller
and smaller and fade away into the sky
that’s the kind of you know traumatic
moment that therapists talk about years
after the fact
like that’s the kind of is the kind of
it’s it’s not funny guys it’s it’s
marked me to this day I think about this
a lot and so you know I’m staring at
this balloon and I go through the five
stages the grief and everything I do
like a funeral song in my head and then
I turned to my parents and I asked kind
of the natural question that any
seven-year-old would ask which is um
where did my balloon go what happens to
my balloon right so my mom is kind of
done with me at this point because I’ve
just brought a balloon back five stops
on the 6:00 train and now I just lost it
so she gives me like one of those little
packs of gogo apples squeezed and she
says shut up and eat your applesauce and
my dad so I turn to my dad and ask him
the same question and he says well you
know son when kids like oh balloons they
become clouds and all the clouds in the
sky that we see today are balloons that
have been lost by kids and I thought
that was really beautiful but I also
realized it was a lie and and so the
next day I decided to try and answer the
question for myself because when you’re
seven years old and you got a question
like that in your head you can’t let go
of it it just keeps coming back and
pounding at your head right so I got a
bunch of balloons and I go to the Great
Lawn in Central Park
and in the middle of like apple trees
and birds and whatever like picnics and
I let balloons go and I look at them
with my plastic binoculars one by one
like where did these things go and so
that doesn’t really work turns out my
binoculars were pretty bad but I looked
it up and what happens to balloons in
the end is that the balloon keeps
floating up until it gets to layer of
the atmosphere where the air around the
balloon is so much colder than the air
inside that the balloon expands and pops
and falls on someone or something
so it’s pretty boring actually but I was
very happy that I found the answer to my
question and you’re probably wondering
why am I talking about this why am I
talking about balloons why am I talking
about Drake so it’s not just because I
asked you with taking flight it’s
because I seriously been thinking about
my childhood experiences and I realized
that I don’t think the same way that I
used to right when you’re a
seven-year-old and you walk down the
street and you see a balloon so many
questions pop into your head right what
happens to this balloon where is it
going and okay the biggest question that
I used to ask myself is can you drop a
balloon because like I dropped the
balloon but it’s going up right it’s
pretty cool and it sounds dumb to you
guys because you’re like mature and old
but for a seven-year-old that’s a like
really fascinating question and that’s
the entire point it’s that when you’re a
seven-year-old you’ve just come into
this world and everything every object
every person you see is something to be
curious about it’s something that’s new
it’s something that you’ve never seen or
experienced before and that’s why little
kids are so annoying because they look
at the world around them and they keep
asking you questions like why is that
chair red you know why does that piano
make noise why does this mic make sounds
how does this balloon float up and and
that’s why parents get so annoyed at
their kids but they’re just discovering
the world around them
and isn’t that a good thing what I
realized thinking back in the back of my
childhood experiences is that we think
of maturity in our society when we think
of maturity what is that you know what
happens when we grow up
we don’t really get wiser or smarter we
just become more blase about the world
around us we can look at the same
balloon as a seven-year-old and not have
any of the same questions pop into our
heads so what really happens when we
grow up is we forget how to ask why and
I think that’s a very dangerous thing
because if you think of all the great
people in the world all the great
discoveries in human history
think about what prompted those things
what prompted those things was ordinary
men and women having the courage to look
at the world around them and look at the
most mundane of objects and have the
courage to channel their childhood
imagination and ask why right I mean
when I go to Central Park now and I look
at a bird I think well it’s a really
fine looking bird has some nice feathers
when Charles Darwin looked at birds on
the Galapagos Islands he said what is
evolution and he changed the way we
think about life right when Sir Isaac
Newton looked at an apple he didn’t say
that’s a tasty like an apple he said
what is gravity and he changed the way
we think about physics when Steve Jobs
looked at an apple he said what is the
iPhone and he changed the way I live my
life and you know these are great people
these are not the moms who said shut up
and eat your applesauce these are not
the dads who say the clouds are made of
balloons these are that one guy who woke
up in the morning one day and pointed
his telescope to the sky and said that
is what happens to balloons these people
are still children at heart and I think
we should all try to stay that way so my
question for you to open up this
conference is after this is all over
when everyone’s done speaking when
you’ve walked up these stairs and out
those doors and back into the real world
what things are you going to see what
details are you going to notice what
questions are you going to ask thank you
[Applause]
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