[Applause]
tell your story change the conversation
organized by students TEDx youth at shc
it’s after school I’m sitting at my desk
and you wouldn’t know it there’s an
action movie going on in my head my mind
is racing and the gears in it are
spinning so fast it almost feels like
they’re on overdrive it’s pretty chaotic
and though my thoughts seem all over the
place each and every one of them is
focused on one thing fear head and I can
feel my heart beating loudly in my chest
I can hear my uneven breathing and I
noticed that my hands are mindlessly
ripping a piece of paper
I hate these feelings but I can’t get
away from them because fear is just too
strong and I am already really tired
since the beginning of eighth grade I
was wasting life being afraid of the
things that could happen in it I was
afraid of not being up to people’s
expectations and I wanted so much to
please everyone else that I became
overwhelmed with the belief that I was
inadequate I told myself I’m not good
enough for my parents for my teachers
for my friends and for the people I
haven’t even met yet but we’ll meet I
was afraid of my grades dropping and
falling behind others and I forgot that
life is not a race and I didn’t want to
try new things because I was afraid of
failure that again could follow fear
found a place in me and like the magnet
that it is it brought more emotions of
sadness anger and jealousy for quite a
while it was like life was flashing a
billboard that just said
fear fear fear and it was exhausting to
have to keep worrying about everything
that could go wrong so I decided to do
something about it that day after I
managed to calm myself enough I looked
down at my hands and found that I had
been ripping papers and I began to
wonder about how flimsy paper is and how
easily it could be torn apart when I was
done there was just one tiny piece left
in the palm of my hand that I could
easily hold in my fist and that’s when
it came to me fear was just like this
piece of paper and that it could be torn
apart it’s quite the revelation right
actually wrong it’s a pretty simple fear
can only be as powerful as we let it be
at that moment I decided to tear the
paper for everything I was afraid of
I was scared of people judging me after
tearing the paper
I found that though I do care what
people think of me in the end
this life is mine and what I decide to
do with it will bring it to where it
will be while others think of me and my
decisions will be secondary to what I
believe about myself and my decisions I
was afraid of my grades dropping and
falling behind others but I’d tore the
paper and I know now that though grades
are important it is even more important
to me that I’m trying my best working
hard and staying healthy I refuse to
allow letters control or define me and
yes I was afraid of falling behind
others but I tore the paper and I
realized I can never be the best because
there’s always someone better and that
is completely fine
rather than being jealous of others all
the time I want to focus on bettering
self and doing the best I can learning
from what I do right and especially what
I do wrong because we know there will be
a lot of those and though I was afraid
of failure I am not afraid of failing
anymore because I tore the paper and I
realized that if I never try I will
never know if success is waiting for me
and if I do fail that will just be one
more thing for me to work harder at or
one thing for me to let go now
all this is great but what strikes me
most when I look back is that it was a
change in perspective that allowed me to
stop being afraid nothing more all it
took for me to regain control of life
was taking a step back and looking at
problems through a different lens every
day someone falls to the trap of fear
and depression and every time that
happens the world loses one of its parks
I cannot count how many young adults I
know that are truly undergoing these
feelings but are many times overlooked
we have become a society where we want
to push ourselves to the maximum and
perfection is our ultimate goal but
because of this view we become afraid of
failure and we become angry at ourselves
when we do fail but how are we to stop
this the truth is I don’t think anything
can completely stop this trend but I do
know that thinking of fear as a piece of
paper has really helped me I know that
if we can actually implement the idea
little by little a world of positive
emotions that fear has hidden away opens
up to us I no longer feel so afraid that
I am overwhelmed because I know that
fear only has the amount of power I
allow it to have and it is awesome to
know that just a change in perspective
can make it a flimsy shred of paper in
the palm of my hand
thank you
tell your story change the conversation
organized by students TEDx youth at shc
it’s after school I’m sitting at my desk
and you wouldn’t know it there’s an
action movie going on in my head my mind
is racing and the gears in it are
spinning so fast it almost feels like
they’re on overdrive it’s pretty chaotic
and though my thoughts seem all over the
place each and every one of them is
focused on one thing fear head and I can
feel my heart beating loudly in my chest
I can hear my uneven breathing and I
noticed that my hands are mindlessly
ripping a piece of paper
I hate these feelings but I can’t get
away from them because fear is just too
strong and I am already really tired
since the beginning of eighth grade I
was wasting life being afraid of the
things that could happen in it I was
afraid of not being up to people’s
expectations and I wanted so much to
please everyone else that I became
overwhelmed with the belief that I was
inadequate I told myself I’m not good
enough for my parents for my teachers
for my friends and for the people I
haven’t even met yet but we’ll meet I
was afraid of my grades dropping and
falling behind others and I forgot that
life is not a race and I didn’t want to
try new things because I was afraid of
failure that again could follow fear
found a place in me and like the magnet
that it is it brought more emotions of
sadness anger and jealousy for quite a
while it was like life was flashing a
billboard that just said
fear fear fear and it was exhausting to
have to keep worrying about everything
that could go wrong so I decided to do
something about it that day after I
managed to calm myself enough I looked
down at my hands and found that I had
been ripping papers and I began to
wonder about how flimsy paper is and how
easily it could be torn apart when I was
done there was just one tiny piece left
in the palm of my hand that I could
easily hold in my fist and that’s when
it came to me fear was just like this
piece of paper and that it could be torn
apart it’s quite the revelation right
actually wrong it’s a pretty simple fear
can only be as powerful as we let it be
at that moment I decided to tear the
paper for everything I was afraid of
I was scared of people judging me after
tearing the paper
I found that though I do care what
people think of me in the end
this life is mine and what I decide to
do with it will bring it to where it
will be while others think of me and my
decisions will be secondary to what I
believe about myself and my decisions I
was afraid of my grades dropping and
falling behind others but I’d tore the
paper and I know now that though grades
are important it is even more important
to me that I’m trying my best working
hard and staying healthy I refuse to
allow letters control or define me and
yes I was afraid of falling behind
others but I tore the paper and I
realized I can never be the best because
there’s always someone better and that
is completely fine
rather than being jealous of others all
the time I want to focus on bettering
self and doing the best I can learning
from what I do right and especially what
I do wrong because we know there will be
a lot of those and though I was afraid
of failure I am not afraid of failing
anymore because I tore the paper and I
realized that if I never try I will
never know if success is waiting for me
and if I do fail that will just be one
more thing for me to work harder at or
one thing for me to let go now
all this is great but what strikes me
most when I look back is that it was a
change in perspective that allowed me to
stop being afraid nothing more all it
took for me to regain control of life
was taking a step back and looking at
problems through a different lens every
day someone falls to the trap of fear
and depression and every time that
happens the world loses one of its parks
I cannot count how many young adults I
know that are truly undergoing these
feelings but are many times overlooked
we have become a society where we want
to push ourselves to the maximum and
perfection is our ultimate goal but
because of this view we become afraid of
failure and we become angry at ourselves
when we do fail but how are we to stop
this the truth is I don’t think anything
can completely stop this trend but I do
know that thinking of fear as a piece of
paper has really helped me I know that
if we can actually implement the idea
little by little a world of positive
emotions that fear has hidden away opens
up to us I no longer feel so afraid that
I am overwhelmed because I know that
fear only has the amount of power I
allow it to have and it is awesome to
know that just a change in perspective
can make it a flimsy shred of paper in
the palm of my hand
thank you
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