Transcriber: ALUMNO TOVAR ORTIZ GLORIA TIFFANY Reviewer: Mohamed Salem
Hello, everyone. I'm orange. I'm twenty four.
I'm a singer and it's my honor to be invited to Ted excuse, and I'm hot today.
So today we are going to ponder together the question when is enough really enough?
Now beforehand, I have to inform you in advance that my speech will not include
statistics or sophisticated numbers because I'm not good at those.
I'm just going to tell you a story of myself,
my journey to pursue the meaning of the word enough.
I'm going to take you back to 2009. I was a real nerd.
Little Orange was really into reading and writing,
and I remember myself pestering my parents on every weekend for
a new book to read. And I also remember myself trying to finish homework
as quickly as possible so that
I could sit in front of my computer to write my own novel, The Great Avengers.
Britney Britney was my English nickname at the time.
So anyway, my everyday schedule would be school and then homework
and then writing school homework, writing school homework, writing all over again.
And I was really passionate about writing.
And then came the end of the school year when every girl in my class received
a love confession from the boys in class.
Everyone except me and I realized, maybe boys don't like nerves.
Maybe they like popular girls, and the thought haunted me for days.
I would always wonder if my writing hobby could get me enough boys
or popular enough, and the days went by.
I would still be writing, but with less and less passion. And then I grew up.
I grew up a little and I discovered that I could sing.
And in my childish thought at the time, I ter I turned out to be a bigger passion,
a bigger opportunity to become famous because, you know,
being a singer could get you really popular.
A lot of fans and a lot of respect.
So I I mean, don't get me wrong, I really do love music for what it is now.
But in the past, I mean, I could not ignore the perks of being a singer.
I mean, come on the flashing lights, the fans, the paparazzi,
everything is so fabulous.
So I tried my hardest to pursue my singing career,
and I took every chance I had.
I went to every singing audition I saw on the internet.
Fortunately, I finally could start my singing career in Twenty Eighteen with
a hit single, which was a very big surprise to me and also
a lot of other people. And guess what? I totally forgot my hobby.
My love for writing and gone forever were my first ever self-written novels
and my dream to become an author.
All left and forgotten inside
the old computer that my parents threw away big enough for my parents.
My parents didn't really support my singing passion, which just, you know,
we just have different outlooks in life. I aim for success. I aim for fame.
And to me, fame and success are enough.
But my parents want me to have stability, and in my own dictionary,
stability means not enough.
And we used to have a lot of arguments,
so many that I couldn’t take it anymore to leave my house to go live on my own.
I remember my grandma who lived with us at the time asking me,
When will you finally return?
And I answered, When I have enough, when I achieve enough. And so there I was.
I was really alone and so excited to step into the music industry.
My motto was, You just have to sing, Well, that's all.
And I was flat, really hard by the very first comments. Oh, oh, she's good.
She has a good voice. She just doesn't really look pretty, you know.
Oh, I know that girl. She's saying, Lola. Oh, yeah, I know her.
But, you know, give her time because she's new, right?
But time doesn't really support the ugly ones.
You know, I let those comments get to my head,
and all I worried about at that time was how to make myself more beautiful,
more presentable to the audience,
which led to some main topics of my daily conversations.
Hey, where do you get your nose done? Where do you get your eyes done?
What do you? Sharpened out,
what do you do that facelift that everybody does not days?
That's all I thought about.
Well, for your information, I did have my nose down. I did have a nose down.
And did that make me feel more beautiful? Probably.
And what the time I invested into changing my dressing style
and starving myself, I did look pretty well.
Then another problem came. People would say, Oh, she
has a good voice.
She's way prettier than before, but she's boring. She has no personality.
She has no personality. So I decided to talk more.
I decided to write a lot of funny statuses on my social media,
and it was really fun at first.
I have to admit, because I could finally express what
I thought was only funny to myself before. And everybody likes it.
Everybody digs into my sense of humor,
and some people even get to know me through my silly statements online.
Now it does seem like a whole package. I can sing. I look kind of pretty.
I have an interesting personality. Does that make me feel happy? Not really.
Not yet. It’s way too soon. I don’t want to be a good singer.
I want to be a top singer. I want to be an extraordinary singer.
I want to be a billionaire. I want to be a desirable woman.
My life, so therefore turned into a hustle.
I was so busy all the time,
and I always had that feeling that I wasn't busy enough.
A successful person is supposed to work harder,
work more and have a tighter schedule and rest less. I always want more.
I always feel unsatisfied. Why am I never happy?
I wonder to myself, why are there some people out there who seem to be
so happy even when they don't make as much money as I do?
And then one day came an event that completely changed my whole mindset.
That day, I received a call from my family telling me that my grandma was
very sick and that if I didn't come home to see her, I might regret it forever.
So I rushed home with tears in my eyes,
and I remember myself sitting in a taxi on the way home,
looking out the window and all the way home. I was so surprised. I was shocked.
I was taken aback to see a lot of things and places on the road home had changed.
It's like the whole scenery just looked so different. And I wonder why?
Why didn't I notice that before? And for how long haven't I come home?
And when I saw my grandma on the bed, I said, I'm sorry.
I wasn't good enough as a granddaughter and I have an afford it to buy you
a house yet. I have enough for it to buy you a car yet, but I'm getting there,
so please hold on to me and my grandma just shook her head and smiled my child.
You being well alone is enough. I want nothing else. I cry. I cried a lot
and my mom. The toughest woman I've ever known. Cry two.
And that was the first time I ever saw her being so sad.
And that day was also the first time my mom
and dad really talked heart to heart about my stress.
My burden and my loneliness.
I stayed a night at the house where
I spent my entire childhood staring at my opposite book that I used to treasure
so much. When was the last time that I felt content?
Wasn't it the times when I wrote my own novels
and books planning innocent words onto pages without a care?
Everybody in the world would say.
Wasn't it the times when a saying alone in my own bedroom from
the bottom of my heart?
And didn't I miss all the beautiful things in my life to chase something
so breakable? As we grow up, we pay the price for whatever we're chasing.
And as I'm standing here speaking in front of all of you today,
I'm not so proud to say that I haven't found the answer to the question.
And is enough really enough? Probably enough will never be enough.
After today, I will still have to work hard.
After today, I will still be ambitious.
After today, I probably won't stop being greedy.
But there are two things that I learned from my own story,
which are to take a break and to take a slow.
I'm not advising you to give up on your dreams or ambitions. You're young.
I mean, we're young and it's never to.
It's never wrong to devote your time and your energy to your goals.
It's never too late to strive for success,
but it's also never too soon to sit back sometimes and relax.
Don't be so hard on yourself. Don't fall victim to peer pressure.
Don't let people decide the definition of the word enough for you.
You have to be the one to decide that. And if you're tired, just take a rest.
If you're sad, talk to someone and love yourself enough.
You never love yourself enough, right? And give your assistance enough.
Just it, too. And remember to take look behind you to see everything you have
left along the way. Because even when you don't like it is what made you who
you are today. Please remember where you came from, because once it's gone,
you can have more than enough, but you will never be whole.
And that's the end of my speech today. Thank you so much for listening.