[Music]
[Applause]
yes you know what can only go down from
here when you started TED talk in a
bathroom so I’m 17 years old
and I’m getting ready to go to the
United Nations conference on sustainable
development I arrived at my hotel in
Toronto and within 24 hours
my whole delegation and I are gonna be
on the ground in Rio de Janeiro Brazil
advocating for the polar regions
advocating to world leaders where a
delegation of people under the age of 25
who had all travelled to the Arctic and
the Antarctic I arrived in Toronto I go
up to my hotel room put down my bag they
go in the bathroom and I close the door
behind me and all I can think about is
the journey ahead of me at the United
Nations and I look in the mirror and I
have a realization I have to pee so I do
that I get that done check good start
check mark I turn around put my hand on
the door to the bathroom to leave but it
won’t open
solid so I start giving that door
everything I got which isn’t a whole lot
as you can tell but it’s a bit so I’m
giving it to this door won’t open
wicked going to the United Nations in 24
hours and I’m stuck in a bathroom in
Toronto so I do what any good seventeen
year old boy would do I phoned my mom
give her a call hey sweetie that’s not
what she sounds like
how are you good I’ve landed but I’m in
the bathroom I’m having a lot of trouble
oh we haven’t had this conversation in a
few years thanks for bringing it up mom
but that’s not the problem this time it
was last week I’m stuck in the bathroom
the door won’t open and my mother being
you know the peach she is she reminds me
that she is on Belle Island and cannot
come open the door for me
thank you mom good luck okay bye
what am I gonna do so I go wait a second
wait a second I can phone the front desk
get this solved right quick
so I give him a call Hilton Hotel front
desk
hi I’m in room 656 I need you to send
somebody up right away I’m in the
bathroom having problems second time
still didn’t get it if you say is do you
need a doctor or no no no no no I’m
going to the United Nations tomorrow
morning I need you to send somebody up
right away
of course there no problem right away me
and half an hour so I’m sat in the
bathtub for a good half an hour
suddenly the door opens to the hotel
room
I think perfect my saviors here
hey little rattle at the door it pops
open and there’s a guy stood there he’s
about probably 5 feet tall but he has a
crowbar and he’s looking at me like this
really really this is how I’m spending
my evening so he goes on ok
I’m 17 years old I’m going to the UN
tomorrow but I can’t use the bathroom by
myself so I sit on the bed of my hotel
room and then it starts I’m not good
enough I’m not smart enough
I’m not prepared enough my clothes isn’t
nice enough some hell I’m able to get
through that and go to the UN the next
day and while I’m able to get to the UN
those thoughts don’t end 30 year later I
find myself in a waiting room and it’s a
waiting room I never thought I’d be in
you know we all spend a lot of time in
waiting rooms
whether it’s waiting to see your niece
or nephew for the first time or waiting
to get a tooth pulled or waiting for a
final exam but I never thought it’d end
up in the waiting room of a psychologist
to finally address this unnameable
unshakable thing that had totally taken
over my life and as I’m sat in the chair
in the waiting room across from me as a
bulletin board and on that bulletin
board as a poster for a movie a
documentary called planet ocean and
that’s significant because one year
prior planet ocean had had its red
carpet movie premiere in Rio de Janeiro
Brazil and I was there on that red
carpet as a UN delegate and all I can
think about is how far have I fallen a
year ago me UN delegate and here I find
myself in this waiting room waiting to
get called in and I’ll tell you what
happened on that day in about ten
minutes
Generation screwed not very good a big
part of my life in the past four years
has been working with young people in
small groups at conferences like this in
communities and schools and one of the
questions I get asked the most by young
people is how did you do it and what
they’re referring to is that I was
fortunate in my last year of high school
to win a hundred and seventy thousand
dollars in scholarships and they always
say how did you do it and the follow-up
to that question is always the
presentation of their checklist here’s
my resume here’s my CV here’s my list of
accomplished
and then they asked me a very dangerous
question is this extraordinary enough
and sometimes even more insidious they
ask me am i extraordinary enough and it
was reflecting on my own relationship
with that question of am i extraordinary
enough that ultimately led me here to
talk to all of you I have a pretty
ordinary background I’m from a three by
nine kilometer island in Conception Bay
new flannel Labrador called Belle Island
any of you heard of it yeah we got one
that’s not a great response so I’m from
Belle island small play small town and
from a very humble working-class family
very ordinary you might call it and then
fairly suddenly an extraordinary
opportunity landed right in my lap in my
10th year might intend the 10th grade
rather I was given the opportunity to
travel to the Arctic with students on
ice and before traveling to the Arctic I
was in Ottawa and the founder of the
organization I was traveling to the
Arctic with said I need you to do me a
favor and I thought you’re taking me to
the Arctic what do you need I’m here he
said I need you to go on national
television with me tomorrow morning at 8
o’clock
I thought national TV that’s my life no
problem what do you need of course I’d
never been in TV before sweating beads
so I get into the studio I get miked up
sat down monitor comes on and Seamus
O’Regan who was the host of CTV Canada
and at the time of course is an MP in
Parliament now was doing the interview
he starts off with a little intro to
students on ice and then he says Donovan
Taplin Bell Island right I think oh god
he knows everybody knows now and then I
think about how important Bell Island
had been to getting me in that interview
room and to getting me to the Arctic
that expedition cost $10,000 and from a
community with more than its fair share
of socio-economic issue
shoes I got the bulk of that funding
from Bell Island Newfoundland Labrador
and it was thinking about that it was
thinking about that which made me say
back to Seamus O’Regan that’s right Bell
Island yeah and then I was ready for
that interview
what was going on why on national
television do I suddenly freeze when
somebody asked me where I was from
Brene brown my TED hero who was research
and writing and speaking inspires me and
informs me more than probably anyone
else she says this the irony is that we
attempt to disown our difficult stories
in an attempt to appear more whole or
more acceptable but the irony is that
our wholeness even our wholeheartedness
actually depends on the integration of
all of our experiences including the
Falls and what she’s talking about
I like to call our top-secret files we
all have top-secret files don’t we don’t
we
it’s those lived experiences which we
label as too boring or too sad and we
take them away the first time I realized
how important it is to recognize my
top-secret files and how valuable they
can actually be was when I was being
interviewed for a six-figure scholarship
they asked me many questions in the
scholarship interview room but at the
end they asked me one which really got
me they said if you could have lunch
with one person dead or alive who would
it be
and I’m thinking I’m competing against
Canada’s best and brightest myself
included I really impressed them so I
think Nelson Mandela anybody maybe maybe
no I think how about William Shakespeare
if I can convince them I want to have
lunch with William Shakespeare who I’m
sure would be really fun to talk to
if you’ve read them not a fun guy No
if I can convince them might have lunch
at William Shakespeare I’m walking away
with this
and then I start to have a breakdown I
start to cry like a baby in the middle
of this interview because I realized
what I want to say and I say to them if
I could have lunch with one person dead
or alive it would be my grandmother who
passed away when I was 15 years old she
was a woman who passed away and left no
house behind no car no jewelry no
inheritance but what she did leave
behind was stories that was all she
owned but boy did she own those stories
and I told them how important that was
to my story I walked out of that
interviewing room
excuse me full of tears almost like I am
now
and about two weeks later I got a phone
call that I had won that scholarship and
that was a huge aha moment for me I want
to take you back now that waiting room
where I’m sat there looking at that
poster thinking about how I’ve fallen
finally the doctor comes out and calls
me in I sit down and I start to tell
stories and in the couple years that
have followed I was lucky to learn a lot
what did I learn first thing I learned
was that I have depression and I learned
that after years of disowning my
experiences after years of having these
top-secret files I had gained a core
belief that I wasn’t good enough
have you seen inception with DiCaprio
maybe not a bad film little trippy to be
honest I had really incepted myself and
I truly had a core
leave that I was not good enough that
was the bad news the good news was that
I learned that oftentimes the stories
that are top secret files those
experiences that we disowned often point
to some of the larger issues in society
my mental health was a top secret file
because of the massive stigma that
people face when they’re diagnosed with
a mental illness disowning where I’m
from and my working-class family that
became a top secret file because we’re
conditioned to believe that to own more
is to be more and to own less is to be
less about a year ago I told my friends
and family that I’m gay
plot twist shocker
look at you you all look shocked
unbelievable response get your refund
now I told them in bet for a long time
that was my darkest most hidden most
well-guarded top-secret file why is that
many reasons chief among them is the
discrimination that people still face
because of who they love that’s why that
was a top secret file I learned that to
challenge the experiences we’ve disowned
embodies challenging the gross and
adequacies of the status quo I also
learned that worthiness isn’t a yo-yo
worthiness is more like a parking lot
your worthiness does not go up and down
it’s flat it stays the same it’s
constant and while you may park certain
things on your worthiness that you can’t
see it anymore it always stays the same
I learned that whether it was a
scholarship or whatever I was
classifying is ordinary or extraordinary
in my life that my worthiness was always
going to stay the same regardless of
those ups and downs so what the title of
this talk was how to win a scholarship
and you’re probably thinking you bomb
does this is on your down this is when
your downs what does this have to do
with winning a scholarship first of all
it means that whether you win the
scholarship or not whether you get the
job or not your worthiness stays the
same
but I’m also here to tell you that
storytelling transcends ordinary and
extraordinary so don’t get caught up
labeling those experiences what is
ordinary and what is extraordinary
classifying those lived experiences
comes to a disclaimer first of all I
have to say that the stories young
people tell ought to be about what is
most meaningful to them and not be about
what might be perceived as extraordinary
to someone else but the disclaimer I
want to leave you with is this telling
your stories is really hard work and
telling your stories in a way which
resonates takes practice and I’m not
advocating that you share every
traumatic or challenging experience
you’ve ever had we ought to deal with
that in our own way and on our own time
but what I am here to tell you is that
storytelling that owning all of my
experiences declassifying those
top-secret files and dismantling the
labels of ordinary and extraordinary
have been the greatest factor in getting
elected at 19 and trying to bring about
change at an international level and
taking care of my own mental health at
getting a kid from a rocking Conception
Bay on this stage and from the TEDx logo
and I’ll leave you with the challenge I
want you after this talk is over after
you leave this event tonight to
courageously crack open your vaults and
take a look at your top-secret files and
imagine the stories you could tell and
imagine the change you could make with
those stories thank you
[Applause]
[Applause]
yes you know what can only go down from
here when you started TED talk in a
bathroom so I’m 17 years old
and I’m getting ready to go to the
United Nations conference on sustainable
development I arrived at my hotel in
Toronto and within 24 hours
my whole delegation and I are gonna be
on the ground in Rio de Janeiro Brazil
advocating for the polar regions
advocating to world leaders where a
delegation of people under the age of 25
who had all travelled to the Arctic and
the Antarctic I arrived in Toronto I go
up to my hotel room put down my bag they
go in the bathroom and I close the door
behind me and all I can think about is
the journey ahead of me at the United
Nations and I look in the mirror and I
have a realization I have to pee so I do
that I get that done check good start
check mark I turn around put my hand on
the door to the bathroom to leave but it
won’t open
solid so I start giving that door
everything I got which isn’t a whole lot
as you can tell but it’s a bit so I’m
giving it to this door won’t open
wicked going to the United Nations in 24
hours and I’m stuck in a bathroom in
Toronto so I do what any good seventeen
year old boy would do I phoned my mom
give her a call hey sweetie that’s not
what she sounds like
how are you good I’ve landed but I’m in
the bathroom I’m having a lot of trouble
oh we haven’t had this conversation in a
few years thanks for bringing it up mom
but that’s not the problem this time it
was last week I’m stuck in the bathroom
the door won’t open and my mother being
you know the peach she is she reminds me
that she is on Belle Island and cannot
come open the door for me
thank you mom good luck okay bye
what am I gonna do so I go wait a second
wait a second I can phone the front desk
get this solved right quick
so I give him a call Hilton Hotel front
desk
hi I’m in room 656 I need you to send
somebody up right away I’m in the
bathroom having problems second time
still didn’t get it if you say is do you
need a doctor or no no no no no I’m
going to the United Nations tomorrow
morning I need you to send somebody up
right away
of course there no problem right away me
and half an hour so I’m sat in the
bathtub for a good half an hour
suddenly the door opens to the hotel
room
I think perfect my saviors here
hey little rattle at the door it pops
open and there’s a guy stood there he’s
about probably 5 feet tall but he has a
crowbar and he’s looking at me like this
really really this is how I’m spending
my evening so he goes on ok
I’m 17 years old I’m going to the UN
tomorrow but I can’t use the bathroom by
myself so I sit on the bed of my hotel
room and then it starts I’m not good
enough I’m not smart enough
I’m not prepared enough my clothes isn’t
nice enough some hell I’m able to get
through that and go to the UN the next
day and while I’m able to get to the UN
those thoughts don’t end 30 year later I
find myself in a waiting room and it’s a
waiting room I never thought I’d be in
you know we all spend a lot of time in
waiting rooms
whether it’s waiting to see your niece
or nephew for the first time or waiting
to get a tooth pulled or waiting for a
final exam but I never thought it’d end
up in the waiting room of a psychologist
to finally address this unnameable
unshakable thing that had totally taken
over my life and as I’m sat in the chair
in the waiting room across from me as a
bulletin board and on that bulletin
board as a poster for a movie a
documentary called planet ocean and
that’s significant because one year
prior planet ocean had had its red
carpet movie premiere in Rio de Janeiro
Brazil and I was there on that red
carpet as a UN delegate and all I can
think about is how far have I fallen a
year ago me UN delegate and here I find
myself in this waiting room waiting to
get called in and I’ll tell you what
happened on that day in about ten
minutes
Generation screwed not very good a big
part of my life in the past four years
has been working with young people in
small groups at conferences like this in
communities and schools and one of the
questions I get asked the most by young
people is how did you do it and what
they’re referring to is that I was
fortunate in my last year of high school
to win a hundred and seventy thousand
dollars in scholarships and they always
say how did you do it and the follow-up
to that question is always the
presentation of their checklist here’s
my resume here’s my CV here’s my list of
accomplished
and then they asked me a very dangerous
question is this extraordinary enough
and sometimes even more insidious they
ask me am i extraordinary enough and it
was reflecting on my own relationship
with that question of am i extraordinary
enough that ultimately led me here to
talk to all of you I have a pretty
ordinary background I’m from a three by
nine kilometer island in Conception Bay
new flannel Labrador called Belle Island
any of you heard of it yeah we got one
that’s not a great response so I’m from
Belle island small play small town and
from a very humble working-class family
very ordinary you might call it and then
fairly suddenly an extraordinary
opportunity landed right in my lap in my
10th year might intend the 10th grade
rather I was given the opportunity to
travel to the Arctic with students on
ice and before traveling to the Arctic I
was in Ottawa and the founder of the
organization I was traveling to the
Arctic with said I need you to do me a
favor and I thought you’re taking me to
the Arctic what do you need I’m here he
said I need you to go on national
television with me tomorrow morning at 8
o’clock
I thought national TV that’s my life no
problem what do you need of course I’d
never been in TV before sweating beads
so I get into the studio I get miked up
sat down monitor comes on and Seamus
O’Regan who was the host of CTV Canada
and at the time of course is an MP in
Parliament now was doing the interview
he starts off with a little intro to
students on ice and then he says Donovan
Taplin Bell Island right I think oh god
he knows everybody knows now and then I
think about how important Bell Island
had been to getting me in that interview
room and to getting me to the Arctic
that expedition cost $10,000 and from a
community with more than its fair share
of socio-economic issue
shoes I got the bulk of that funding
from Bell Island Newfoundland Labrador
and it was thinking about that it was
thinking about that which made me say
back to Seamus O’Regan that’s right Bell
Island yeah and then I was ready for
that interview
what was going on why on national
television do I suddenly freeze when
somebody asked me where I was from
Brene brown my TED hero who was research
and writing and speaking inspires me and
informs me more than probably anyone
else she says this the irony is that we
attempt to disown our difficult stories
in an attempt to appear more whole or
more acceptable but the irony is that
our wholeness even our wholeheartedness
actually depends on the integration of
all of our experiences including the
Falls and what she’s talking about
I like to call our top-secret files we
all have top-secret files don’t we don’t
we
it’s those lived experiences which we
label as too boring or too sad and we
take them away the first time I realized
how important it is to recognize my
top-secret files and how valuable they
can actually be was when I was being
interviewed for a six-figure scholarship
they asked me many questions in the
scholarship interview room but at the
end they asked me one which really got
me they said if you could have lunch
with one person dead or alive who would
it be
and I’m thinking I’m competing against
Canada’s best and brightest myself
included I really impressed them so I
think Nelson Mandela anybody maybe maybe
no I think how about William Shakespeare
if I can convince them I want to have
lunch with William Shakespeare who I’m
sure would be really fun to talk to
if you’ve read them not a fun guy No
if I can convince them might have lunch
at William Shakespeare I’m walking away
with this
and then I start to have a breakdown I
start to cry like a baby in the middle
of this interview because I realized
what I want to say and I say to them if
I could have lunch with one person dead
or alive it would be my grandmother who
passed away when I was 15 years old she
was a woman who passed away and left no
house behind no car no jewelry no
inheritance but what she did leave
behind was stories that was all she
owned but boy did she own those stories
and I told them how important that was
to my story I walked out of that
interviewing room
excuse me full of tears almost like I am
now
and about two weeks later I got a phone
call that I had won that scholarship and
that was a huge aha moment for me I want
to take you back now that waiting room
where I’m sat there looking at that
poster thinking about how I’ve fallen
finally the doctor comes out and calls
me in I sit down and I start to tell
stories and in the couple years that
have followed I was lucky to learn a lot
what did I learn first thing I learned
was that I have depression and I learned
that after years of disowning my
experiences after years of having these
top-secret files I had gained a core
belief that I wasn’t good enough
have you seen inception with DiCaprio
maybe not a bad film little trippy to be
honest I had really incepted myself and
I truly had a core
leave that I was not good enough that
was the bad news the good news was that
I learned that oftentimes the stories
that are top secret files those
experiences that we disowned often point
to some of the larger issues in society
my mental health was a top secret file
because of the massive stigma that
people face when they’re diagnosed with
a mental illness disowning where I’m
from and my working-class family that
became a top secret file because we’re
conditioned to believe that to own more
is to be more and to own less is to be
less about a year ago I told my friends
and family that I’m gay
plot twist shocker
look at you you all look shocked
unbelievable response get your refund
now I told them in bet for a long time
that was my darkest most hidden most
well-guarded top-secret file why is that
many reasons chief among them is the
discrimination that people still face
because of who they love that’s why that
was a top secret file I learned that to
challenge the experiences we’ve disowned
embodies challenging the gross and
adequacies of the status quo I also
learned that worthiness isn’t a yo-yo
worthiness is more like a parking lot
your worthiness does not go up and down
it’s flat it stays the same it’s
constant and while you may park certain
things on your worthiness that you can’t
see it anymore it always stays the same
I learned that whether it was a
scholarship or whatever I was
classifying is ordinary or extraordinary
in my life that my worthiness was always
going to stay the same regardless of
those ups and downs so what the title of
this talk was how to win a scholarship
and you’re probably thinking you bomb
does this is on your down this is when
your downs what does this have to do
with winning a scholarship first of all
it means that whether you win the
scholarship or not whether you get the
job or not your worthiness stays the
same
but I’m also here to tell you that
storytelling transcends ordinary and
extraordinary so don’t get caught up
labeling those experiences what is
ordinary and what is extraordinary
classifying those lived experiences
comes to a disclaimer first of all I
have to say that the stories young
people tell ought to be about what is
most meaningful to them and not be about
what might be perceived as extraordinary
to someone else but the disclaimer I
want to leave you with is this telling
your stories is really hard work and
telling your stories in a way which
resonates takes practice and I’m not
advocating that you share every
traumatic or challenging experience
you’ve ever had we ought to deal with
that in our own way and on our own time
but what I am here to tell you is that
storytelling that owning all of my
experiences declassifying those
top-secret files and dismantling the
labels of ordinary and extraordinary
have been the greatest factor in getting
elected at 19 and trying to bring about
change at an international level and
taking care of my own mental health at
getting a kid from a rocking Conception
Bay on this stage and from the TEDx logo
and I’ll leave you with the challenge I
want you after this talk is over after
you leave this event tonight to
courageously crack open your vaults and
take a look at your top-secret files and
imagine the stories you could tell and
imagine the change you could make with
those stories thank you
[Applause]
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