so how’s everyone doing tonight I said
how’s everyone doing tonight
thank you I’m pretty happy to be here
I’m not gonna lie I’m a little nervous
but I’m here to talk to you about
positivity positivity is difficult
positivity is tough and for that matter
negative energy is everywhere go to your
workplaces schools newspapers TVs social
media pull out your phones probably
shouldn’t have said that don’t pull out
your phones so I’m sure you all probably
know what I mean if I tell you the
dreaded hallway stink-eye or what about
the magic finger driving to work and you
make a fast stop or you don’t drive away
from the stoplight quick enough or what
about the grump cashier you don’t know
that one really okay then let me set the
scene you’re checking out at your
supermarket sorry in advance if anyone
is a cashier here I’m sure you’re great
you’re checking out at your supermarket
grocery store Target wherever you might
go and you go up to the cashier hi how’s
your day going okay maybe they didn’t
hear me I’ll try that again how’s your
day been that time I got a grunt what
the heck where is that coming from is
negativity easier is the dark side of
emotions easier I know I have a couple
Star Wars fans out there that got the
see I think that positivity is just hard
it’s harder than being negative so then
why is that hard I have a couple ideas
we are surrounded by many types of
people we are social creatures at heart
and most of us like to be talking to
other people and some of those people
take pride in being a pessimist or
glass-half-empty which means sometimes
we can be swept with that tide so then
for us to change that everyone would
need to be positive including the
pessimist another reason it’s so hard to
change is that most of us are unaware of
this assumption we don’t like to put
ourselves out there even the most
outgoing of us although you may deny
that the Jacque doesn’t want to go hang
out with the nerd and the nerd doesn’t
want to go hang out with another nerd
the Lord of the Rings geek to the Harry
Potter geek we’re afraid of rejection
that might come with that and we assume
that people won’t like us and that we’ll
just build up and it builds up and
builds up and the more it does it’s
harder to face we construct emotional
comfort zones like their prison cells
but they’re not the prison cell isn’t
locked it’s not a prison cell it’s not
even a door it’s a wide-open gate and if
we just walked through that we might
find something that could make us more
positive a new influence in our life to
make us happier so it’s hard to own our
positivity
let me lay something on you I propose we
would rather be unhappy than
uncomfortable do you believe that
do you buy that if you do let’s take it
one more step we have to be responsible
for our own happiness for our own
positivity because life is going to
happen to us we might lose a loved one
we may have financial struggles we may
lose a job we may need a surgery we
never thought we would need I had three
of those three brain surgeries we may
experience violence or we might
experience harassment that one happened
to me too when I was in seventh grade
there was a boy that rode the bus with
me who chose me as his target who made
me uncomfortable despite my protests he
sexually harassed me and for a long time
that left me in a dark place I didn’t
know how to cope with that it took me a
long time to move past it but one day I
realized I had to I had to get back up
again
I had to own this positivity again and
once I came to that conclusion
I kept feeding my positivity and that’s
something we all need to do we need to
own the positivity and feed it we can
give ourselves downtime time to mourn
time to move on but we have to come back
to being positive now I’m not saying
negative emotions aren’t okay it’s okay
to be jealous it’s okay to be angry to
be sad to be frustrated to feel betrayed
to be annoyed all of that is okay but
not forever one day we will have to move
past that so I realize that I am a
junior in high school
I am a 16 year old girl and some of you
in the audience may be thinking what the
heck does she know about anything
you might be right I am 16 I’m young I
do know a couple things I know that I
have had three brain surgeries for a
condition called hydrocephalus I know
that I have been sexually harassed and I
know this this is me stepping outside my
comfort zone
this is me opening the gate to a new
positive influence in my life an
opportunity to be happier I’m already
feeling pretty good about it
and I hope you all are too thank you
[Applause]
how’s everyone doing tonight
thank you I’m pretty happy to be here
I’m not gonna lie I’m a little nervous
but I’m here to talk to you about
positivity positivity is difficult
positivity is tough and for that matter
negative energy is everywhere go to your
workplaces schools newspapers TVs social
media pull out your phones probably
shouldn’t have said that don’t pull out
your phones so I’m sure you all probably
know what I mean if I tell you the
dreaded hallway stink-eye or what about
the magic finger driving to work and you
make a fast stop or you don’t drive away
from the stoplight quick enough or what
about the grump cashier you don’t know
that one really okay then let me set the
scene you’re checking out at your
supermarket sorry in advance if anyone
is a cashier here I’m sure you’re great
you’re checking out at your supermarket
grocery store Target wherever you might
go and you go up to the cashier hi how’s
your day going okay maybe they didn’t
hear me I’ll try that again how’s your
day been that time I got a grunt what
the heck where is that coming from is
negativity easier is the dark side of
emotions easier I know I have a couple
Star Wars fans out there that got the
see I think that positivity is just hard
it’s harder than being negative so then
why is that hard I have a couple ideas
we are surrounded by many types of
people we are social creatures at heart
and most of us like to be talking to
other people and some of those people
take pride in being a pessimist or
glass-half-empty which means sometimes
we can be swept with that tide so then
for us to change that everyone would
need to be positive including the
pessimist another reason it’s so hard to
change is that most of us are unaware of
this assumption we don’t like to put
ourselves out there even the most
outgoing of us although you may deny
that the Jacque doesn’t want to go hang
out with the nerd and the nerd doesn’t
want to go hang out with another nerd
the Lord of the Rings geek to the Harry
Potter geek we’re afraid of rejection
that might come with that and we assume
that people won’t like us and that we’ll
just build up and it builds up and
builds up and the more it does it’s
harder to face we construct emotional
comfort zones like their prison cells
but they’re not the prison cell isn’t
locked it’s not a prison cell it’s not
even a door it’s a wide-open gate and if
we just walked through that we might
find something that could make us more
positive a new influence in our life to
make us happier so it’s hard to own our
positivity
let me lay something on you I propose we
would rather be unhappy than
uncomfortable do you believe that
do you buy that if you do let’s take it
one more step we have to be responsible
for our own happiness for our own
positivity because life is going to
happen to us we might lose a loved one
we may have financial struggles we may
lose a job we may need a surgery we
never thought we would need I had three
of those three brain surgeries we may
experience violence or we might
experience harassment that one happened
to me too when I was in seventh grade
there was a boy that rode the bus with
me who chose me as his target who made
me uncomfortable despite my protests he
sexually harassed me and for a long time
that left me in a dark place I didn’t
know how to cope with that it took me a
long time to move past it but one day I
realized I had to I had to get back up
again
I had to own this positivity again and
once I came to that conclusion
I kept feeding my positivity and that’s
something we all need to do we need to
own the positivity and feed it we can
give ourselves downtime time to mourn
time to move on but we have to come back
to being positive now I’m not saying
negative emotions aren’t okay it’s okay
to be jealous it’s okay to be angry to
be sad to be frustrated to feel betrayed
to be annoyed all of that is okay but
not forever one day we will have to move
past that so I realize that I am a
junior in high school
I am a 16 year old girl and some of you
in the audience may be thinking what the
heck does she know about anything
you might be right I am 16 I’m young I
do know a couple things I know that I
have had three brain surgeries for a
condition called hydrocephalus I know
that I have been sexually harassed and I
know this this is me stepping outside my
comfort zone
this is me opening the gate to a new
positive influence in my life an
opportunity to be happier I’m already
feeling pretty good about it
and I hope you all are too thank you
[Applause]
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