so I want everybody in this room to
imagine one thing that you think you’re
bad at anything just one thing that
whether you don’t feel confident in it
whether it’s a big concept or a tiny
detail just one single thing that you
don’t think you’re good at now imagine
if you were tested on that every single
day of your life every day that is what
people saw you and that’s how you saw
yourself that is where my story begins
so in first grade I don’t remember much
but I do remember being brought into
this big scary office I was handed a
test and I was timed little did I know
that this was a test to see if I had a
learning disability turns out i’m
dyslexic
now all through elementary school I
remember being you know pulled out out
of class to work one-on-one with a
teacher that specialized in learning
disabilities and I hated this I did not
find it fun at all and I felt so
different from the other kids I felt
like there was something wrong with me
that I was you know special needs or I
was stupid or you know I I was
embarrassed now
when that bell rang at 3:10 I got to go
home and when I mean home I mean the
dance studio now I got to leap and twirl
and do all these things that I didn’t
think I could do and I was I was so
smart there I was a genius there that
was my genius I got to do I got to
forget about what kind of day I had at
school and just you know do me now
throughout elementary school this
happened and towards fifth and sixth
grade that was the start of middle
school for here at CAA and the school
got harder and the dance you know nights
I started dancing four or five days a
week and I was just I felt like I was
struggling like a lot now seventh grade
seventh grade was really hard for me in
a lot of different ways seventh grade
was the year that
got even more harder and grades got more
important now so did dance dance I
started dancing six days a week and I
was moving up in my company now it
started to become where if I got a bad
grade at school or if I had a lot of
homework I couldn’t go to dance
I was restricted and I’m now realizing
how bad of a decision that was because
it was all work and no fun it was all
you know I had to do something that I
wasn’t good at and something that made
me sad and I couldn’t do what I loved
now towards the end of seventh grade and
all of eighth grade I am now having to
learn how to love myself unconditionally
and even though I’m not great at school
it doesn’t mean I’m not good at anything
I am still a genius just in my own way
now I hate the word stupid for a lot of
different reasons actually when I was
younger my dad he taught me I’m only
allowed to say the word stupid when I
was talking about drugs or Michigan I
definitely grew up in Columbus Ohio now
I hate this word for a lot of different
reasons and I hate it because it’s only
directed at school it’s only if you’re
you get bad grades then you’re stupid
right so stupid it’s only if you’re bad
at school so school is the only thing
you can be good at in order not to be
stupid you have to be good at school so
is that the only thing that we can be
genius is that is that the only way to
be a genius now I’m sure a lot of you
have heard many different analogies of
animals being told to do something that
they don’t normally do or they’re not
necessarily built to do
for example Albert Einstein once said if
you tell a fish to climb a tree
it’ll spend its whole life thinking that
it is an idiot this is basically the
scoring system we’re all forced to sit
in straight lines you know raise your
hand if we want to speak we’re sports to
think the same at the same pace at the
same time the same way and our
work differently that just doesn’t
really make sense my whole life I kind
of felt like a fish being asked to climb
a tree when I found dance it was
something that I was being asked to swim
I was a fish being asked to swim it just
clicked it was my way of not only
expressing myself but getting my mind
off of everything
I also don’t really like grades very
much not just because I don’t get good
ones but because it’s it’s a funny
concept if I fail a test or anything
does that mean I’m a failure at
everything does that mean I fail to
learn the information does that mean I
fail to memorize it all so motivation
what are students motivation nowadays is
it you know I just need to pass this
test or just to get a B on this test and
then my quarter grade will be blank and
you know everything will be fine what if
we actually wanted to learn the
information what if we actually had a
passion about it I go to dance because I
want to learn how to dance I want to get
better I want to express myself I want
to go are we only going to school to get
good grades now the title of my talk is
everyone’s a genius which is something
I’ve I truly believe in I think that
everyone is a genius in their own way I
think that everyone is good at something
just because you can’t do what the
person next to you is sitting quite as
well it doesn’t mean you’re stupid it
doesn’t mean you’re not as good as them
you just have your own talents you’re
just different geniuses now you are
powerful and you’re strong and no matter
how you think about yourself how other
people think of you how other people
look at you it doesn’t matter because
you’re a genius I’m a genius and
everyone is a genius find your genius
grab it and run with it thank you for your time
imagine one thing that you think you’re
bad at anything just one thing that
whether you don’t feel confident in it
whether it’s a big concept or a tiny
detail just one single thing that you
don’t think you’re good at now imagine
if you were tested on that every single
day of your life every day that is what
people saw you and that’s how you saw
yourself that is where my story begins
so in first grade I don’t remember much
but I do remember being brought into
this big scary office I was handed a
test and I was timed little did I know
that this was a test to see if I had a
learning disability turns out i’m
dyslexic
now all through elementary school I
remember being you know pulled out out
of class to work one-on-one with a
teacher that specialized in learning
disabilities and I hated this I did not
find it fun at all and I felt so
different from the other kids I felt
like there was something wrong with me
that I was you know special needs or I
was stupid or you know I I was
embarrassed now
when that bell rang at 3:10 I got to go
home and when I mean home I mean the
dance studio now I got to leap and twirl
and do all these things that I didn’t
think I could do and I was I was so
smart there I was a genius there that
was my genius I got to do I got to
forget about what kind of day I had at
school and just you know do me now
throughout elementary school this
happened and towards fifth and sixth
grade that was the start of middle
school for here at CAA and the school
got harder and the dance you know nights
I started dancing four or five days a
week and I was just I felt like I was
struggling like a lot now seventh grade
seventh grade was really hard for me in
a lot of different ways seventh grade
was the year that
got even more harder and grades got more
important now so did dance dance I
started dancing six days a week and I
was moving up in my company now it
started to become where if I got a bad
grade at school or if I had a lot of
homework I couldn’t go to dance
I was restricted and I’m now realizing
how bad of a decision that was because
it was all work and no fun it was all
you know I had to do something that I
wasn’t good at and something that made
me sad and I couldn’t do what I loved
now towards the end of seventh grade and
all of eighth grade I am now having to
learn how to love myself unconditionally
and even though I’m not great at school
it doesn’t mean I’m not good at anything
I am still a genius just in my own way
now I hate the word stupid for a lot of
different reasons actually when I was
younger my dad he taught me I’m only
allowed to say the word stupid when I
was talking about drugs or Michigan I
definitely grew up in Columbus Ohio now
I hate this word for a lot of different
reasons and I hate it because it’s only
directed at school it’s only if you’re
you get bad grades then you’re stupid
right so stupid it’s only if you’re bad
at school so school is the only thing
you can be good at in order not to be
stupid you have to be good at school so
is that the only thing that we can be
genius is that is that the only way to
be a genius now I’m sure a lot of you
have heard many different analogies of
animals being told to do something that
they don’t normally do or they’re not
necessarily built to do
for example Albert Einstein once said if
you tell a fish to climb a tree
it’ll spend its whole life thinking that
it is an idiot this is basically the
scoring system we’re all forced to sit
in straight lines you know raise your
hand if we want to speak we’re sports to
think the same at the same pace at the
same time the same way and our
work differently that just doesn’t
really make sense my whole life I kind
of felt like a fish being asked to climb
a tree when I found dance it was
something that I was being asked to swim
I was a fish being asked to swim it just
clicked it was my way of not only
expressing myself but getting my mind
off of everything
I also don’t really like grades very
much not just because I don’t get good
ones but because it’s it’s a funny
concept if I fail a test or anything
does that mean I’m a failure at
everything does that mean I fail to
learn the information does that mean I
fail to memorize it all so motivation
what are students motivation nowadays is
it you know I just need to pass this
test or just to get a B on this test and
then my quarter grade will be blank and
you know everything will be fine what if
we actually wanted to learn the
information what if we actually had a
passion about it I go to dance because I
want to learn how to dance I want to get
better I want to express myself I want
to go are we only going to school to get
good grades now the title of my talk is
everyone’s a genius which is something
I’ve I truly believe in I think that
everyone is a genius in their own way I
think that everyone is good at something
just because you can’t do what the
person next to you is sitting quite as
well it doesn’t mean you’re stupid it
doesn’t mean you’re not as good as them
you just have your own talents you’re
just different geniuses now you are
powerful and you’re strong and no matter
how you think about yourself how other
people think of you how other people
look at you it doesn’t matter because
you’re a genius I’m a genius and
everyone is a genius find your genius
grab it and run with it thank you for your time
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