when I was asked to talk at this TED
talk about the theme charged for change
I figured that they wanted me to discuss
overcoming my fears because when I think
about what I’m most scared of change is
right up there with airplanes highways
and public speaking so but I wanted to
do this speech because it wasn’t going
to be in front of a whole bunch of
adults it was gonna be in front of kids
and I knew that this was a speech that I
wish someone gave me when I was your age
when I was seven years old I remember
walking through a department store with
my mom and she looked back at me and
it’s the first time I ever remember her
asking me this
she said Mikey what do you want to be
when you grow up I didn’t even have to
think about it I was like a rock star
she looked at me with this look of
concern and confusion and she was like
oh I was like well you know the fans
being up on stage I didn’t know how
terrifying the stage thing would be um I
just that was exactly what I wanted to
be and I learned from her response to
maybe answer that differently in the
future I learned how to read people and
I learned how to tailor my response to
whoever was asking sure dad I want to be
an engineer when I grow up yep I’m gonna
be President of the United States I
would love to be a priest Nana
hmm but the truth was as I got older
that question got more and more
terrifying it got to the point when
someone would ask me when I want to be
when I grew up that I would clench up
and I knew that the time was coming
where I had to make that decision even
asking me what I wanted to major in in
college even asking me what college I
wanted to go to I actually could not
decide what college I wanted to go to I
put housing deposits down on to
universities I had roommates in two
universities calling me and asking me to
get things set up and I’m like haha I
don’t even know which of the two of you
I’m going to until August um
and so it got really scary and I didn’t
know that it was okay to be scared I
spent 13 years of schooling working on
building this boat and this was the boat
that I was gonna put out on the Seas and
I was gonna go out and explore I was
gonna find a destination and I was gonna
travel to that destination and I built a
great boat I worked hard in high school
I made sure that I had as many
opportunities available to me as I could
and just didn’t know which of the
opportunities interested me most so I
built this awesome sailboat and I looked
at my grandfather and he was kind of one
of my role models and he owned a small
refrigeration business and that was his
passion he learned how to take apart a
refrigerator and put it back together
when he was in the Navy and he came back
from the Navy opens up this little shop
and spent the next 50 years working at
triple-a appliance and he seemed to love
what he did and he got to the end of his
life and it seemed like a life that was
well lived and I thought that’s what I
was supposed to do I needed to find my
small appliance repair shop
the unfortunate thing was I built this
awesome boat and I forgot to put a
steering wheel in it so I put my boat
into the water as I I finally decided on
college and um I was like great I don’t
know where I’m supposed to go or how I’m
supposed to get there so I was a
business major that’s that was my first
of four I don’t know why I was a
business major I never took a business
class I think I just picked something to
pick something that was probably the
response that gave most people smiles
when they asked what he gonna major in
business yep business I’m gonna major in
business so I started as a businessman
around my sophomore year I was in an
accounting class and I remember sitting
there going nope this is not for me nope
I got to pick something else and at the
time I took a class that was a general
education class and it was called
infectious diseases and disorders and
something was sparked or finally enough
I was like wow this is really
interesting and everybody else in my
class is like this kids a weirdo but I
really loved it and so I went to talk to
the professor and I said hey I really
liked your class you know I think this
is better fit for me than business she
said maybe you should look into biology
by the way this class won’t count for
your major all right
so I switched to biology I turned as
best as I could the ship towards the
idea of biology and that was met with
happiness in my household because my
parents said hey that’s great you gonna
go into dentistry or medicine and I’m
like yep yep that and so I was set on
medical school and one of my cousin’s at
the time was in medical school and she
said Mike she said it’s tough it’s hard
but you know what you’re gonna love it
as long as you’re passionate about it
what I like it
I always that is that enough she’s like
as long as you’re passionate wonderful
all right so I was set for medical
school until I took a seminar that was
given by a bunch of different physicians
who were in all different fields and so
these physicians talked about their
daily lives and I went to a hospital and
I shadowed some physicians and I really
got a better idea of what being a doctor
was and I remember imagining my ship
crashing against the shores of reality
when I figured out that medicine it
wasn’t gonna happen for me
it wasn’t my passion still didn’t know
what my passion was so I narrowed it
down I was like alright what can you do
with a bio major you can be a doctor so
be a researcher I’ll go be a researcher
so I got a job in a neuroscience lab it
turns out I don’t have the personality
for research I’m a little too talkative
I also wasn’t really that charged up
about what I was doing and so that
didn’t work either and so I’m sitting
there with my adviser and I’m a senior
in college and my advisors like so what
are you going to do when you grow up
stop asking me that she’s like but you
have to make a decision because you know
you’re gonna have to get a job someday I
know that
so I’m sitting there thinking where’s my
where’s my small appliance repair shop
and I decided to go to law school
because that’s what everyone with a bio
major does and so I went to law school
and I’m thinking what this is the
business major again did you just people
just say oh a lawyer that sounds good
and so you just followed it idiot and so
I started law school and I thought okay
you know what
this might not be the right choice but
this is a choice you’re making a
decision you are saying this is a career
you are pointing your ship towards a
career and at the end of the day at
least you’re making a decision
unfortunately the first day of law
school came and it was me in law school
my older daughter would probably put it
this way me and law school went together
like lemon juice and your eye and I felt
like for three years every day of my
life was pouring lemon juice into my
eyes but you know what I stuck with it
because I thought all right at this
point if I change again someone’s gonna
kill me and it’s probably gonna be my
mom and so I thought you know what I’m
gonna I’m gonna make this work I am
going to maybe this is what passion is
maybe passion is finally deciding on
something and following it through and
maybe you discover passion later in your
life okay
I can buy into that so I’m on my ship
and I’m steering towards a life in law
which was actually worse than Law School
um and at some point I’m just like this
is this doesn’t work there’s got to be
something else and so my firm started a
volunteer program where it was called
Philadelphia reeds and they would bring
in inner-city kids to the firm and
lawyers would partner up with them and
during the day Thursday afternoons we
would get some time off and we would go
and mentor these younger students help
them with their reading skills talk to
them give them someone to look up to
that kind of thing and Thursday
afternoon became the highlight of my
week I looked forward to the idea of
mentoring kids so much more than
anything else in my life at the time I
was also put on a medical team at my
firm that we were trying to figure out
you know whether or not
Our client was a big drug company
whether their drug was the proximate
injury of these plaintiffs whether the
drug was the proximate cause of these
plaintiffs injuries and so we’re sifting
through thousands of pages of medical
records and it turns out not a lot of
lawyers have bio degrees and so I got to
teach them about anatomy and physiology
I got to say hey here’s how the renal
system and the circulatory system might
come together and here’s how we can
figure out whether or not this was the
injury and something clicked and I
realized I really really liked being
back in biology and I really enjoyed
teaching not lawyers but I enjoyed
teaching and so I went back to get my
masters in education at night while I
was a lawyer and for the last five years
finally learning to embrace change that
it’s okay to change that it’s not a bad
thing to constantly change for the last
five years I have lived my passion every
single day that I’ve been in the
downtown STEM Academy
no matter how tough the day is I
understand what people say when they say
finding your pet find your passion and
you will never work a day in your life
because that’s that’s how I feel
and in teaching bio I’ve learned that
there are people a lot more famous who
have done a lot more than me
whose path is kind of mirror mine and
one of them is Johann Mendel and Johann
Mendel grew up the poor son of a farmer
he was the only son of the farmer so you
know his life was gonna be farming and
man does like yeah I like farming but
Dad what do you think about me being
teacher lofty profession and uh his
dad’s like uh yeah we’re farming farming
works too and he’s like no no I want to
go off University of Vienna I’m gonna be
a teacher it’s gonna be wonderful and
his father’s like oh yeah we don’t have
money anyway and his sisters like well I
have a dowry
I give you my dad that’s like you know
they give money for taking the daughter
old thing they she said I you take my
dowry money go off and be a teacher and
yo.hannes like alright and so he takes
her money happily and he goes off and he
becomes a teacher and he is now
remembered as the world’s greatest
teacher
mendel went off to the university sat
for his teaching certification exams and
failed he built himself a big beautiful
boat that sailed towards teaching only
to be crushed by the tsunami of reality
that he was not meant to be a teacher
and Mendel was like no I’m not done yet
still think this is what I’m meant to do
but I need to pay my way through so now
I’m going to join an abbey I’m gonna
become a monk they’re like all right
we’re gonna name your brother Gregor
they’re gonna be Gregor Mendel and so
Mendel becomes a monk and he gets back
into something he liked from the
beginning which was gardening farming it
wasn’t his passion but he still liked it
and so he starts a little garden outside
of the Abbey he grows him some pea
plants and he’s he’s excited about
growing these people and he’s like look
at that sometimes I take a small pea
plant and a big pea plant and I get big
pea plants he’s a wait a sec I take a
small pea planted a big pea plan and I
make big pea plants he’s like this flies
in the face of everything we’re teaching
in universities I may not be a teacher
but I know things and I know that you
tell me that when we take small pea
plants and big pea plants that we make
medium pea plants and that is clearly
not true so give my Peas a chance so he
runs through ten generations a hundred
generations a thousand generations
10,000 generations of pea plants decades
of work observations journals that he
noted all of this in we remember Gregor
Mendel not as a should have been farmer
wanted to be teacher ended up being a
monk we think about him as the father of
modern genetics his contributions have
changed the lives of billions of people
for the better because his path wasn’t
straight to a small appliance repair
shop
Charles Darwin another example a similar
experience but vastly different boat
because you see Charles Darwin grew up
the wealthy son of a world-renowned
physician and Charles Darwin’s father
helped him build a big old gold boat and
that was a beautiful gold boat and he
put a nice steering wheel in lucky for
Darwin except his dad didn’t let his
steering wheel turn he put him in the
boat and he said you are headed to the
University of Edinburgh the best Medical
School in the world at the time and you
are going to become a world-renowned
physician and Charles Darwin’s like yep
dad I’m gonna be a doctor just like you
and he gets to the University and he’s
taking his medical school classes and
it’s like me and accounting
totally bored he’s like I got a seek out
other options so he takes a class in
taxidermy which is preservation of
formerly alive organisms it’s kind of
like making your own stuffed animals and
he’s really interested in this and he he
takes a class on that and he’s like oh
this marine research over here he’s
really cool and he’s interested in like
how species change over time I’m gonna
do this and his dad’s like hold on a
second you weird taxidermy marine bye
I’m gonna take you away from your
stuffed animals and I’m taking you out
of this University in you’re going to
the University of Oxford and at Oxford
you’re gonna study become a parson just
kind of like a priest
Darwin’s like all right turn my boat and
there he’s like yeah this is about as
much fun as medicine and so he thinks
all right instead I am going to find
things I like I’m gonna take a course in
geology because I like to learn how
births masses have changed over time and
I’m going to get into the newest craze
at the time which was beetle collecting
of course and so he’s got you know all
these different kind of beetles from all
around the world he’s like look how
different they are I’ll trade you my
beetle for your beetle and just like the
original beetles they rocked alright so
he he learns all these things he likes
and his buddy Robert Fitzroy comes along
he goes hey do you want to take a little
journey on a sea cruise with me and
Darwin’s like yes sure get away from
this parson education for a little while
and so he takes the sea cruise all
around the world and all along the way
he’s collecting different specimens and
he’s like oh I’m gonna get back to my
taxidermy and I’m gonna make little
stuffed animals and he’s down in his
cabin you know playing with his little
stuffed animals and he’s thinking cuz
there’s a lot of time when you’re going
port O’Call port to call and so he’s
thinking about you know look at that
this Finch from South America kind of
looks like this Finch from the Galapagos
and the Galapagos you know according to
all of my research into geology the
Galapagos is a new thing like centuries
ago it wasn’t here so where’d the Finch
come from South America so came over
from South America to the Galapagos and
then it changed it changed and Darwin
made these observations and he realized
that he discovered something profound
that life species begin down one path
and because the world changes the
species has two options go extinct or
adapt
we look at Darwin now not as they should
have been doctor wanted to be
taxidermist oddly enough a sailor we
look at him as the father of modern
evolution and we look at how evolution
has helped us understand better who we
are and where we came from
Darwyn told us that life begins down a
certain path and that to adapt to change
we have to be open to doing so it’s kind
of a profound message for me it reminds
me of my other passion which is running
running ‘he’s always been there for me
every moment of my life that i haven’t
liked i’ve been able to at least look at
running as the one thing in my day that
works and i will next week compete in my
seventh marathon and training for a
marathon requires ridiculously long
training runs 15 17 20 miles and freak
fortunately enough we live in
southeastern pennsylvania which is a
perfect place to go for runs cuz we’ve
so many beautiful trails around here
chester valley trail everybody ever gone
on that one it’s really nice it’s
runners paradise I mean it’s flat it’s
paved it’s wide and there’s always
people around there is no place I hate
running more than Chester Valley trail
and the reason is because for long
stretches of it I can see exactly where
I’m going I can see where I have to go
and how long it’s going to take me last
week I ran the can at square half
marathon vastly different I had never
run in can–it square before if you
haven’t run there it is incredibly hilly
and I didn’t know where I was going I
didn’t know left right I didn’t know the
challenges are the hills that were
coming up every time I got to a hill I
was like another one this is number 17
but I knew by then that by the time I
got to the top of that hill that there
was gonna be a glorious downhill and
that was gonna feel good and I think
about that in my life and how embracing
change and understanding that the more
I’m willing to turn left or turn right
and take on that challenge how that has
helped me discover what my passion is
and to learn to enjoy the run
thank you
[Applause]
talk about the theme charged for change
I figured that they wanted me to discuss
overcoming my fears because when I think
about what I’m most scared of change is
right up there with airplanes highways
and public speaking so but I wanted to
do this speech because it wasn’t going
to be in front of a whole bunch of
adults it was gonna be in front of kids
and I knew that this was a speech that I
wish someone gave me when I was your age
when I was seven years old I remember
walking through a department store with
my mom and she looked back at me and
it’s the first time I ever remember her
asking me this
she said Mikey what do you want to be
when you grow up I didn’t even have to
think about it I was like a rock star
she looked at me with this look of
concern and confusion and she was like
oh I was like well you know the fans
being up on stage I didn’t know how
terrifying the stage thing would be um I
just that was exactly what I wanted to
be and I learned from her response to
maybe answer that differently in the
future I learned how to read people and
I learned how to tailor my response to
whoever was asking sure dad I want to be
an engineer when I grow up yep I’m gonna
be President of the United States I
would love to be a priest Nana
hmm but the truth was as I got older
that question got more and more
terrifying it got to the point when
someone would ask me when I want to be
when I grew up that I would clench up
and I knew that the time was coming
where I had to make that decision even
asking me what I wanted to major in in
college even asking me what college I
wanted to go to I actually could not
decide what college I wanted to go to I
put housing deposits down on to
universities I had roommates in two
universities calling me and asking me to
get things set up and I’m like haha I
don’t even know which of the two of you
I’m going to until August um
and so it got really scary and I didn’t
know that it was okay to be scared I
spent 13 years of schooling working on
building this boat and this was the boat
that I was gonna put out on the Seas and
I was gonna go out and explore I was
gonna find a destination and I was gonna
travel to that destination and I built a
great boat I worked hard in high school
I made sure that I had as many
opportunities available to me as I could
and just didn’t know which of the
opportunities interested me most so I
built this awesome sailboat and I looked
at my grandfather and he was kind of one
of my role models and he owned a small
refrigeration business and that was his
passion he learned how to take apart a
refrigerator and put it back together
when he was in the Navy and he came back
from the Navy opens up this little shop
and spent the next 50 years working at
triple-a appliance and he seemed to love
what he did and he got to the end of his
life and it seemed like a life that was
well lived and I thought that’s what I
was supposed to do I needed to find my
small appliance repair shop
the unfortunate thing was I built this
awesome boat and I forgot to put a
steering wheel in it so I put my boat
into the water as I I finally decided on
college and um I was like great I don’t
know where I’m supposed to go or how I’m
supposed to get there so I was a
business major that’s that was my first
of four I don’t know why I was a
business major I never took a business
class I think I just picked something to
pick something that was probably the
response that gave most people smiles
when they asked what he gonna major in
business yep business I’m gonna major in
business so I started as a businessman
around my sophomore year I was in an
accounting class and I remember sitting
there going nope this is not for me nope
I got to pick something else and at the
time I took a class that was a general
education class and it was called
infectious diseases and disorders and
something was sparked or finally enough
I was like wow this is really
interesting and everybody else in my
class is like this kids a weirdo but I
really loved it and so I went to talk to
the professor and I said hey I really
liked your class you know I think this
is better fit for me than business she
said maybe you should look into biology
by the way this class won’t count for
your major all right
so I switched to biology I turned as
best as I could the ship towards the
idea of biology and that was met with
happiness in my household because my
parents said hey that’s great you gonna
go into dentistry or medicine and I’m
like yep yep that and so I was set on
medical school and one of my cousin’s at
the time was in medical school and she
said Mike she said it’s tough it’s hard
but you know what you’re gonna love it
as long as you’re passionate about it
what I like it
I always that is that enough she’s like
as long as you’re passionate wonderful
all right so I was set for medical
school until I took a seminar that was
given by a bunch of different physicians
who were in all different fields and so
these physicians talked about their
daily lives and I went to a hospital and
I shadowed some physicians and I really
got a better idea of what being a doctor
was and I remember imagining my ship
crashing against the shores of reality
when I figured out that medicine it
wasn’t gonna happen for me
it wasn’t my passion still didn’t know
what my passion was so I narrowed it
down I was like alright what can you do
with a bio major you can be a doctor so
be a researcher I’ll go be a researcher
so I got a job in a neuroscience lab it
turns out I don’t have the personality
for research I’m a little too talkative
I also wasn’t really that charged up
about what I was doing and so that
didn’t work either and so I’m sitting
there with my adviser and I’m a senior
in college and my advisors like so what
are you going to do when you grow up
stop asking me that she’s like but you
have to make a decision because you know
you’re gonna have to get a job someday I
know that
so I’m sitting there thinking where’s my
where’s my small appliance repair shop
and I decided to go to law school
because that’s what everyone with a bio
major does and so I went to law school
and I’m thinking what this is the
business major again did you just people
just say oh a lawyer that sounds good
and so you just followed it idiot and so
I started law school and I thought okay
you know what
this might not be the right choice but
this is a choice you’re making a
decision you are saying this is a career
you are pointing your ship towards a
career and at the end of the day at
least you’re making a decision
unfortunately the first day of law
school came and it was me in law school
my older daughter would probably put it
this way me and law school went together
like lemon juice and your eye and I felt
like for three years every day of my
life was pouring lemon juice into my
eyes but you know what I stuck with it
because I thought all right at this
point if I change again someone’s gonna
kill me and it’s probably gonna be my
mom and so I thought you know what I’m
gonna I’m gonna make this work I am
going to maybe this is what passion is
maybe passion is finally deciding on
something and following it through and
maybe you discover passion later in your
life okay
I can buy into that so I’m on my ship
and I’m steering towards a life in law
which was actually worse than Law School
um and at some point I’m just like this
is this doesn’t work there’s got to be
something else and so my firm started a
volunteer program where it was called
Philadelphia reeds and they would bring
in inner-city kids to the firm and
lawyers would partner up with them and
during the day Thursday afternoons we
would get some time off and we would go
and mentor these younger students help
them with their reading skills talk to
them give them someone to look up to
that kind of thing and Thursday
afternoon became the highlight of my
week I looked forward to the idea of
mentoring kids so much more than
anything else in my life at the time I
was also put on a medical team at my
firm that we were trying to figure out
you know whether or not
Our client was a big drug company
whether their drug was the proximate
injury of these plaintiffs whether the
drug was the proximate cause of these
plaintiffs injuries and so we’re sifting
through thousands of pages of medical
records and it turns out not a lot of
lawyers have bio degrees and so I got to
teach them about anatomy and physiology
I got to say hey here’s how the renal
system and the circulatory system might
come together and here’s how we can
figure out whether or not this was the
injury and something clicked and I
realized I really really liked being
back in biology and I really enjoyed
teaching not lawyers but I enjoyed
teaching and so I went back to get my
masters in education at night while I
was a lawyer and for the last five years
finally learning to embrace change that
it’s okay to change that it’s not a bad
thing to constantly change for the last
five years I have lived my passion every
single day that I’ve been in the
downtown STEM Academy
no matter how tough the day is I
understand what people say when they say
finding your pet find your passion and
you will never work a day in your life
because that’s that’s how I feel
and in teaching bio I’ve learned that
there are people a lot more famous who
have done a lot more than me
whose path is kind of mirror mine and
one of them is Johann Mendel and Johann
Mendel grew up the poor son of a farmer
he was the only son of the farmer so you
know his life was gonna be farming and
man does like yeah I like farming but
Dad what do you think about me being
teacher lofty profession and uh his
dad’s like uh yeah we’re farming farming
works too and he’s like no no I want to
go off University of Vienna I’m gonna be
a teacher it’s gonna be wonderful and
his father’s like oh yeah we don’t have
money anyway and his sisters like well I
have a dowry
I give you my dad that’s like you know
they give money for taking the daughter
old thing they she said I you take my
dowry money go off and be a teacher and
yo.hannes like alright and so he takes
her money happily and he goes off and he
becomes a teacher and he is now
remembered as the world’s greatest
teacher
mendel went off to the university sat
for his teaching certification exams and
failed he built himself a big beautiful
boat that sailed towards teaching only
to be crushed by the tsunami of reality
that he was not meant to be a teacher
and Mendel was like no I’m not done yet
still think this is what I’m meant to do
but I need to pay my way through so now
I’m going to join an abbey I’m gonna
become a monk they’re like all right
we’re gonna name your brother Gregor
they’re gonna be Gregor Mendel and so
Mendel becomes a monk and he gets back
into something he liked from the
beginning which was gardening farming it
wasn’t his passion but he still liked it
and so he starts a little garden outside
of the Abbey he grows him some pea
plants and he’s he’s excited about
growing these people and he’s like look
at that sometimes I take a small pea
plant and a big pea plant and I get big
pea plants he’s a wait a sec I take a
small pea planted a big pea plan and I
make big pea plants he’s like this flies
in the face of everything we’re teaching
in universities I may not be a teacher
but I know things and I know that you
tell me that when we take small pea
plants and big pea plants that we make
medium pea plants and that is clearly
not true so give my Peas a chance so he
runs through ten generations a hundred
generations a thousand generations
10,000 generations of pea plants decades
of work observations journals that he
noted all of this in we remember Gregor
Mendel not as a should have been farmer
wanted to be teacher ended up being a
monk we think about him as the father of
modern genetics his contributions have
changed the lives of billions of people
for the better because his path wasn’t
straight to a small appliance repair
shop
Charles Darwin another example a similar
experience but vastly different boat
because you see Charles Darwin grew up
the wealthy son of a world-renowned
physician and Charles Darwin’s father
helped him build a big old gold boat and
that was a beautiful gold boat and he
put a nice steering wheel in lucky for
Darwin except his dad didn’t let his
steering wheel turn he put him in the
boat and he said you are headed to the
University of Edinburgh the best Medical
School in the world at the time and you
are going to become a world-renowned
physician and Charles Darwin’s like yep
dad I’m gonna be a doctor just like you
and he gets to the University and he’s
taking his medical school classes and
it’s like me and accounting
totally bored he’s like I got a seek out
other options so he takes a class in
taxidermy which is preservation of
formerly alive organisms it’s kind of
like making your own stuffed animals and
he’s really interested in this and he he
takes a class on that and he’s like oh
this marine research over here he’s
really cool and he’s interested in like
how species change over time I’m gonna
do this and his dad’s like hold on a
second you weird taxidermy marine bye
I’m gonna take you away from your
stuffed animals and I’m taking you out
of this University in you’re going to
the University of Oxford and at Oxford
you’re gonna study become a parson just
kind of like a priest
Darwin’s like all right turn my boat and
there he’s like yeah this is about as
much fun as medicine and so he thinks
all right instead I am going to find
things I like I’m gonna take a course in
geology because I like to learn how
births masses have changed over time and
I’m going to get into the newest craze
at the time which was beetle collecting
of course and so he’s got you know all
these different kind of beetles from all
around the world he’s like look how
different they are I’ll trade you my
beetle for your beetle and just like the
original beetles they rocked alright so
he he learns all these things he likes
and his buddy Robert Fitzroy comes along
he goes hey do you want to take a little
journey on a sea cruise with me and
Darwin’s like yes sure get away from
this parson education for a little while
and so he takes the sea cruise all
around the world and all along the way
he’s collecting different specimens and
he’s like oh I’m gonna get back to my
taxidermy and I’m gonna make little
stuffed animals and he’s down in his
cabin you know playing with his little
stuffed animals and he’s thinking cuz
there’s a lot of time when you’re going
port O’Call port to call and so he’s
thinking about you know look at that
this Finch from South America kind of
looks like this Finch from the Galapagos
and the Galapagos you know according to
all of my research into geology the
Galapagos is a new thing like centuries
ago it wasn’t here so where’d the Finch
come from South America so came over
from South America to the Galapagos and
then it changed it changed and Darwin
made these observations and he realized
that he discovered something profound
that life species begin down one path
and because the world changes the
species has two options go extinct or
adapt
we look at Darwin now not as they should
have been doctor wanted to be
taxidermist oddly enough a sailor we
look at him as the father of modern
evolution and we look at how evolution
has helped us understand better who we
are and where we came from
Darwyn told us that life begins down a
certain path and that to adapt to change
we have to be open to doing so it’s kind
of a profound message for me it reminds
me of my other passion which is running
running ‘he’s always been there for me
every moment of my life that i haven’t
liked i’ve been able to at least look at
running as the one thing in my day that
works and i will next week compete in my
seventh marathon and training for a
marathon requires ridiculously long
training runs 15 17 20 miles and freak
fortunately enough we live in
southeastern pennsylvania which is a
perfect place to go for runs cuz we’ve
so many beautiful trails around here
chester valley trail everybody ever gone
on that one it’s really nice it’s
runners paradise I mean it’s flat it’s
paved it’s wide and there’s always
people around there is no place I hate
running more than Chester Valley trail
and the reason is because for long
stretches of it I can see exactly where
I’m going I can see where I have to go
and how long it’s going to take me last
week I ran the can at square half
marathon vastly different I had never
run in can–it square before if you
haven’t run there it is incredibly hilly
and I didn’t know where I was going I
didn’t know left right I didn’t know the
challenges are the hills that were
coming up every time I got to a hill I
was like another one this is number 17
but I knew by then that by the time I
got to the top of that hill that there
was gonna be a glorious downhill and
that was gonna feel good and I think
about that in my life and how embracing
change and understanding that the more
I’m willing to turn left or turn right
and take on that challenge how that has
helped me discover what my passion is
and to learn to enjoy the run
thank you
[Applause]
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