would ask me what’s going on and how
many of you wouldn’t when I was about
six months old my parents discovered I
had nice tag miss which is rapid
involuntary eye movement my eyesight is
much worse than the average student and
glasses don’t do anything to help the
only thing I can do is turn my head to
find my null point which is where I see
best text any farther than four feet
away from me and yes I did measure this
just for my TED talk just looks like
undefined squiggles this was and still
can be hard to accommodate at school but
my talk isn’t really about nice tag miss
it’s about well it’s about what nice tag
miss has taught me which is it’s always
better to ask whether you need something
or don’t know something I’m going to
tell you a story about how I learned to
ask I never knew why teachers would put
me in the front of the classroom until
one day in third grade this day is one
of my clearest memories I was talking to
one of my closest friends at the time
while turning in a paper and she said
your eyes are so creepy when they shake
I was extremely confused by this and had
no idea what she was talking about that
night I went home told my mom and we
went out for dinner that night that was
the night I discovered all of the
answers to my previous questions my
parents gave me all the facts I’ve had
it since I was little I turned my head
to see better and my eye shake every
time I look at something my heart sank
and I can’t quite explain why I drank
water to try to keep out from bursting
into tears the idea of having nice tag
miss made me feel different and I wasn’t
sure then third grade I wanted to be
different throughout my third grade year
i was called creepy and ask all kinds of
questions about why my eye shake
eventually I got so tired of these
comments that I met with the student
services teacher to help me educate my
classmates the teacher asked me if I
wanted her to present to the class or if
I wanted to it took me one night to
decide but my parents were encouraging
me to do it myself and to empower myself
I decided to do
myself and I wrote all of the
remember being so nervous that I would
be judged because of my eyes but I got
up myself and I told my class about my
nice tag miss and I’m so glad that I did
because I was getting used to the idea
of having nice tag miss myself so I
didn’t want to talk about it either I am
so glad that I made all the choices that
I did that all had to do with asking i’m
glad that i asked my parents what was
going on and i’m glad that i have that
my friends asked me what was going on
because once they knew it was no big
deal and nice tag mrs. continue to make
me advocate for myself I have no problem
asking a teacher to help me find a seat
in the front row even if I get to class
late it is always better to ask and have
more information because you might find
out something amazing for instance
whenever I go to dinner with my grandpa
and the waiter has an interesting name
he always asked the origin through this
he has found out many different things
about many different cultures it is
always better to ask where someone or
something originates from because the
more you know about the person or thing
in their background don’t don’t be
offended when someone asks you a
question about yourself it’s not a bad
thing that someone wants to get to know
you and you have to answer the questions
too although nice tag miss has caused
all of these obstacles I believe it has
helped me realize something that I
wouldn’t have without it it is always
better to ask and have more information
because the more you know the more you
can accomplish thank you [Applause]