leaves a footprint in the sand and life
is the same exact way everybody who ever
been on this world has had an impact of
somebody else and therefore has left a
legacy whether you’re a crossing guard
or a doctor or someone like Steve Jobs
no matter how big or small your
interaction with other people are you
have left a legacy on this earth however
unfortunately a majority of people
legacies quickly and once they pass away
you know over time the tides rise the
water rushes in and all of your
footprints get washed away any trace
that you were ever there it’s completely
gone and what’s left is just clean sand
for somebody else to walk over and there
are certain people with dedication and
passion and hard work that have hard
that work hard to leave a lasting legacy
on this earth and I plan to be one of
these people so I’m gonna tell you one
of my biggest in the starkest fears and
that’s the fear of being forgotten um I
have a fear of being forgotten by my
family by my friends by my loved ones by
the community and eventually by the
world and a lot of people call me
pessimistic for thinking this way um
everybody calls me pessimistic for
thinking this way but this is my thought
process so there are 107 billion people
that have ever been on this world since
the beginning of time about there
currently are about 7.3 billion people
on this earth with 305 million of them
um in America 8.9 million of them in New
Jersey and 22,000 people here in Scotch
Plains now you and me are only one of
these very very big numbers and
obviously that’s scary to me but out on
top of that the average person makes
about 100 meaningful connections in
their lifetime with another person and
that’s being generous so that means that
the average person makes meaningful
connections with about zero point zero
zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero
nine percent of all humanity
and add more bad news on top of that
majority of people can’t even remember
their family members three generations
back I mean I bet not a lot of you could
remember the name of your
great-great-grandparents let alone what
her personality was like or what they
did so that means that eventually a few
years after your death you’re not even
going to be remembered by your own
relatives let alone the rest of the
world and these statistics scare me this
is why I have a fear of being forgotten
because I don’t want to live my entire
life to walk the entire length of the
shore only for it to mean nothing only
for my footprints to be easily washed
away so despite my fear something that
I’ve realized is what’s important is how
you change the world and how you impact
other people because the more change
that you bring upon to this world the
deeper and longer your legacy the deeper
and longer your legacy you leave on this
earth is and the deeper your footprint
in the sand is however I’m just a high
school student I can’t do much oh I
can’t invent the new the next wheel I
can’t find a cure for cancer but what I
can do and what I do plan to do is
impact people through meaningful
connections with others now since I was
a little kid since I was in pre-k
through Knost years old till eighth
grade I spent 11 years in a small tiny
private school middle school in
Springfield New Jersey and through those
eleven years I spent um I had I had
classmates
since I was the classes I had since I
was three I spent 11 years with the same
people we never had anyone you and these
22 people became my graduate became my
graduating class and eventually my
family we’re all screaming because we’re
being hit by water balloons but yeah um
so these people were the only people
I’ve ever known all my life and after
graduating we all went our separate ways
some people went to private high school
some people went to the town high school
but me I was the only one that I went to
you cvts um so since these people were
pretty much the only people I’ve known
ever since I was three
that meant I going to UTSA I would have
absolutely no familiar face at all
and this was super super terrifying for
me I mean high school is scary enough
but imagine going from a small tiny
private middle school to being pushed
into a large public high school with
people from all over the county coming
who already know each other and
meanwhile the only people that I knew
were me myself and I and plus the thing
that scared me the most was I was scared
that I was gonna walk for four years of
my high school through the hallways
going on notice only to graduate and be
forgotten by everyone like in a few
years no one will remember who I was or
that I even ever came to the school
however at that time that fear didn’t
hinder me or stopped me in fact that
fear put a fire under me to get up and
leave an impact wherever I go or
wherever I went which was this school so
I decided that if I wanted to be
remembered if I wanted to leave a impact
a legacy that I had to start somewhere
or with someone now making new friends
is absolutely horrible for me like
obviously I had no problem making
friends when I was like three years old
before high school because when we were
three years old all we cared about was
playing eating in that time and you know
these people were pretty much the only
people I knew so when I came to high
school when it came to the real world I
was super scared I was super shy when I
when I started talking to people I I
become awkward I don’t know what to say
and I like closed off so it was the
summer heading into freshman year and I
was scrolling through my Instagram and I
saw this person who in their bio it said
AIT class of 2019 and in that incident I
decided to make a decision that like a
decision that I would have never made
any other time and I decided to do
something that I haven’t done since I
was three years old which was make a new
friend so what I did was I decided to
slide in this person’s video and I
started a conversation with them and
here is a snippet of our awkward
conversation but at least I tried at
least I went out and did something and
I’m incredibly proud of myself for doing
that because that
really changed my life um I not only
made the effort to talk to this person
but I made the effort to really make a
connection with this person so to really
build upon that connection and make a
meaningful relationship with that person
because what’s important because this is
absolutely important making meaningful
connections with people allows you to
have a longer impact with them and
therefore you leave a longer legacy and
a lasting legacy with that person and
eventually the world so I thought that
was important and um so what I did from
this experience was I learned from it I
I applied it all I asked myself how
could I apply this so I could leave my
legacy at this school and I did exactly
that and I feel like I accomplished that
I went out and I did the same thing with
so many other people and since freshman
year to junior year I have made
incredible friendships I’ve had
incredible experiences with other people
and I’ve made meaningful connections
with people not only in campus but also
outside of campus and it’s all because
um I decided to step out and try to make
meaningful connections with people and I
felt like I finally conquered my fear of
being forgotten in my school and in my
community and that was all through
interaction with people which I wanted
to set up which I set out to do but what
about my legacy for the world well
making a legacy for the world solely
through interactions as people is
incredibly hard when you know that
wide-scale so that’s why ever since I
was young I’ve always wanted to go into
the film industry so ever since I was
young movies have been a super huge part
of my life I was always glued to my TV
screen watching hours and hours of
movies being trapped being sucked into
this world that these directors made and
the people that I look up to our people
like Christopher Nolan Damien Chazelle
Sean Baker
Greta Gerwig Hayao Miyazaki like these
incredible writers producers and and
directors are the people that shaped me
into Who I am today they taught me
lessons through a movie screen they
taught me how to see the world in
different ways they tell me how to be
compassionate to be to be ambitious
to really try to change the world and
that was all through a TV screen and I
think that’s incredible
I have never met these people never met
these directors in your life but they
still manage to create a personal
connection with me and they still manage
to leave a lasting impact on me and
millions of other people around the
world and I want to do the same for
others I mean the fact that you could
reach out to such a diverse and wide
group of people just through a movie
screen is incredible and that’s how I
hope to change others and that’s how I
hope to leave my legacy but leaving a
legacy is not easy it’s definitely a lot
of hard work nobody could change the
world overnight and nobody could change
the world by having everything handed to
them on a silver platter so but you
always need to start somewhere and it
always takes hard work so first a good
place to start is to find out what
you’re good at
ask yourself what talents do I have that
I could use so I could have a positive
impact on this world um are you an
artist and actor or singer that could
inspire many through the content that
they create or are you are you a a
scientist or a doctor that could find a
cure for cancer are you an engineer or
entrepreneurs I could come up with the
next new thing that everybody will be
using or are you none of these are you
just a normal person that could help the
world just by volunteering within your
community the point is everybody could
do something as long as you’re not doing
nothing because don’t just stand there
idle while other people are changing the
world for you get out there and actually
start making your legacy start small
start with the people around you which
is what I’m trying to do with give me
this talk I’m trying to change the
people around me and then work your way
up to the your school to your community
to your country and to eventually the
world and lastly what I think is super
important to leaving a legacy is the
necessity to be a game changer now
something that there was something that
really stuck with me from one of my
favorite TV shows of all time which is
sensei on Netflix now a brief summary
Sensei is a story about eight strangers
around the world who become connected
through
their emotions and through their actions
they essentially become one and one of
the characters in this TV show Nomi
marks that’s something that really stuck
with me which is your life is not your
life is either defined by the system or
the way you defy the system nobody
changes the world by doing things
exactly how they’re supposed to be those
who are brave to challenge conventions
and think outside the box and take
initiative to actually do things outside
of the box are the people that changed
the world don’t be a follower cuz that
just means that you’re just there’s a
hundreds of people ahead of you leading
the way while you just follow behind um
be the one that paves new ways for Papes
new paths and leads people and push for
a pushing money for it in your direction
so remember that everybody leaves a
footprint in the sand and these
footprints could easily be washed away
just by water but if you work hard if
you if you take every single opportunity
you get and take advantage of it if you
start small and work your way up and you
just try to make a difference because
you can make you could change the course
of humanity just through small small
differences make a footprint that’ll stand the test of the time thank you