[Applause]
we are in the details you me we are in
the details have you ever wanted to
share your story at times I feel like
sharing my story but every time I think
about sharing my story it sounds like
everybody else’s you see I want my story
to be different me I’m different but
when I think about it
the only differences are in the details
and that’s it we me we are in the
details and our lives evolved from how
we choose to express those details our
details are full of life according to my
mom the first word that I ever spoke was
C and she said I kept repeating that
single word over and over again until I
learned others apparently seeing
mattered to me our curiosity for the
world and people around us begins with
us being curious curious enough to
examine the details so you know I say to
you this is it our details my dad and I
we never got to know each other in the
details I was not supposed to be here
you see I was his outside love child I
don’t have his last name but fortunately
or unfortunately I have his good looks
when I was young he would always come by
on the weekends to visit me but he was
intentionally absent for birthday
parties and social events I knew very
well that I was hidden not meant to be
seen we loved each other in our own
allowable way but it was a very distant
relationship it didn’t get much better
when I came to the u.s. you see the
miles sometimes as an immigrant what you
get you don’t get to go home for years
and time ticks by I went for years
without returning home I just couldn’t
make it back I made it back in time to
visit my dad on his deathbed that was
difficult for me you know I always had
it in the back of my mind please please
let me be free to see him at least
before he dies and I did and he looked
like death and it was shocking for me to
see see him like that you know we kind
of expect our family members to live
couple of months later my dad passed
followed by the death of one of my dogs
this feeling of loss was intensified for
me and I had nowhere that I could run
nowhere that I could hide so I sat alone
and I felt loss and I thought to myself
wow
all that to come to this all that hiding
fearing what others might think getting
in the way of us knowing each other this
man whose DNA was half mine I did not
even know we did not know each other in
we trivialized our existence and now
poof gone just like that it occurred to
me that you know I was just paused I was
paused and things fell away not fell
apart fell away the unnecessary things
in my life fell away and I remember
feeling stripped and now I had time for
the details I found out that I could
paint and when I’m painting I’m in a
state of appreciation because my
paintings are so detailed and during
each piece I would usually cry for
reasons such as I had never seen the
flower like that before and the beauty
and the detail just touches me and I’m
ashamed that I had not noticed it before
now as I’m painting have you ever seen
the petunia like that before not me no
no not me the leaf like that no not me
not until now in the details the details
are where we creates purpose and meaning
for our intersecting lives in a
fast-paced complicated world our lives
can go unexamined isn’t that true
our lives can go unexamined each one of
us stumbles and falls
but how each one of us stumbles and
stands again expresses the details of
the human spirit this is my story it is
your story it is our story
a most human of story this is our legacy
as a teacher I wanted somehow to share
this way of seeing with others my
students I wanted them to be touched by
the details just as much as I am but I
wondered how how was I gonna do that
because it made my life so full you know
I wanted to share it with somebody so
the how turned out to be a forensic
science facial reconstruction project
now this is the process whereby we
create a life-sized three-dimensional
image of a person’s face by starting out
with just the skull as a clue right I
had the joy of watching the beauty that
is in the details evolved over two
semesters during this project as my
students and I we studied cranial
features learnt about tissue depth
markers as scientists we carefully
observed and studied these unknown
skulls and then we measured classified
documented and placed tissue depth
markers all over these skulls as artists
we were opening up ourselves to learning
a new skill sculpting the scientists and
the artists became one mutually
dependent but not the same I watched as
one student became so immersed in
smoothing out clay to create a defined
face no one else in her group could do
that with such care and attention to
detail as we watch the faces emerge from
the skulls they became our faces our
skulls and we could not help but imagine
and wonder who they once were
we became curious about the spirit that
once animated these faces who loved them
who did they love it was an amazing
experience the students and I we found
that through this project experiments we
embraced our unique roles determined by
our natural talents trust and
appreciation developed between us and I
could see the look of confidence in
their eyes as if to say what’s next you
see hope is also in the details and then
it made sense to me I said this is
excellence excellence was in our
expression of the details and so now I
say to you
that this is how we create an
interconnected wholesome family a
community a humanity by building upon
the mutual appreciation of each other
different people’s cultures and talents
as we see each other as expressions of human excellence in the details
we are in the details you me we are in
the details have you ever wanted to
share your story at times I feel like
sharing my story but every time I think
about sharing my story it sounds like
everybody else’s you see I want my story
to be different me I’m different but
when I think about it
the only differences are in the details
and that’s it we me we are in the
details and our lives evolved from how
we choose to express those details our
details are full of life according to my
mom the first word that I ever spoke was
C and she said I kept repeating that
single word over and over again until I
learned others apparently seeing
mattered to me our curiosity for the
world and people around us begins with
us being curious curious enough to
examine the details so you know I say to
you this is it our details my dad and I
we never got to know each other in the
details I was not supposed to be here
you see I was his outside love child I
don’t have his last name but fortunately
or unfortunately I have his good looks
when I was young he would always come by
on the weekends to visit me but he was
intentionally absent for birthday
parties and social events I knew very
well that I was hidden not meant to be
seen we loved each other in our own
allowable way but it was a very distant
relationship it didn’t get much better
when I came to the u.s. you see the
miles sometimes as an immigrant what you
get you don’t get to go home for years
and time ticks by I went for years
without returning home I just couldn’t
make it back I made it back in time to
visit my dad on his deathbed that was
difficult for me you know I always had
it in the back of my mind please please
let me be free to see him at least
before he dies and I did and he looked
like death and it was shocking for me to
see see him like that you know we kind
of expect our family members to live
couple of months later my dad passed
followed by the death of one of my dogs
this feeling of loss was intensified for
me and I had nowhere that I could run
nowhere that I could hide so I sat alone
and I felt loss and I thought to myself
wow
all that to come to this all that hiding
fearing what others might think getting
in the way of us knowing each other this
man whose DNA was half mine I did not
even know we did not know each other in
we trivialized our existence and now
poof gone just like that it occurred to
me that you know I was just paused I was
paused and things fell away not fell
apart fell away the unnecessary things
in my life fell away and I remember
feeling stripped and now I had time for
the details I found out that I could
paint and when I’m painting I’m in a
state of appreciation because my
paintings are so detailed and during
each piece I would usually cry for
reasons such as I had never seen the
flower like that before and the beauty
and the detail just touches me and I’m
ashamed that I had not noticed it before
now as I’m painting have you ever seen
the petunia like that before not me no
no not me the leaf like that no not me
not until now in the details the details
are where we creates purpose and meaning
for our intersecting lives in a
fast-paced complicated world our lives
can go unexamined isn’t that true
our lives can go unexamined each one of
us stumbles and falls
but how each one of us stumbles and
stands again expresses the details of
the human spirit this is my story it is
your story it is our story
a most human of story this is our legacy
as a teacher I wanted somehow to share
this way of seeing with others my
students I wanted them to be touched by
the details just as much as I am but I
wondered how how was I gonna do that
because it made my life so full you know
I wanted to share it with somebody so
the how turned out to be a forensic
science facial reconstruction project
now this is the process whereby we
create a life-sized three-dimensional
image of a person’s face by starting out
with just the skull as a clue right I
had the joy of watching the beauty that
is in the details evolved over two
semesters during this project as my
students and I we studied cranial
features learnt about tissue depth
markers as scientists we carefully
observed and studied these unknown
skulls and then we measured classified
documented and placed tissue depth
markers all over these skulls as artists
we were opening up ourselves to learning
a new skill sculpting the scientists and
the artists became one mutually
dependent but not the same I watched as
one student became so immersed in
smoothing out clay to create a defined
face no one else in her group could do
that with such care and attention to
detail as we watch the faces emerge from
the skulls they became our faces our
skulls and we could not help but imagine
and wonder who they once were
we became curious about the spirit that
once animated these faces who loved them
who did they love it was an amazing
experience the students and I we found
that through this project experiments we
embraced our unique roles determined by
our natural talents trust and
appreciation developed between us and I
could see the look of confidence in
their eyes as if to say what’s next you
see hope is also in the details and then
it made sense to me I said this is
excellence excellence was in our
expression of the details and so now I
say to you
that this is how we create an
interconnected wholesome family a
community a humanity by building upon
the mutual appreciation of each other
different people’s cultures and talents
as we see each other as expressions of human excellence in the details
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