Transcriber: Nhung Quang Reviewer: Zsófia Herczeg
When I came up on the stage today, what were your first impressions of me?
I know some of you guys are like,
“This kid is so short he can barely even reach the microphone.”
Some of you guys are probably like,
“I’m excited for his speech because the last one was amazing.”
That guy right there is like, I know he’s like,
“When is this over? I just want to go home early.
It’s already cold enough.”
Okay, so the reason why I ask this question
is to show that we all think differently.
We all have different ideas and interests.
Take stories for an example.
Some people like to read
about the magical, adventurous world of Harry Potter.
To others, that’s boring,
and they rather read about the ancient Chinese sculptures
from 2000 years ago.
Yet, no matter what kind of stories we like,
we’re all interested in them for some reason.
I think we are fascinated by the things that we feel are missing in our lives:
excitement, love, adventure, friendship.
But in comparison to the stories we read and the movies we watch,
our life, honestly, seems a bit boring.
You know all we do is get up in the morning, eat cereal,
go to school or work, you know,
come back late at night and go to bed waiting to repeat it all the next day.
But I believe that there is a simple change
that we can all make to make our life as interesting as the stories we love.
And that is to view your life like a story
with you as its protagonist.
And I know it sounds weird at first,
but if you think about it,
all the movies and the books we watch and read
are all based off of people’s lives.
So just like a character in a story,
we all go through different environments and settings, and face challenges
and overcome them as we journey through the different chapters of our lives.
Now I like to share a part of my story.
So growing up, like Hamza said,
I moved a lot in my life from sunny California
to the snowy Massachusetts, to rural Pennsylvania.
I've been all over the country.
I’ve been to five different states and bent over six different schools.
So it’s safe to say that my environments were consistently changing.
And to be honest, you know,
I love meeting new people and going to new places,
but like anyone,
facing a lot of sudden changes was pretty hard for me.
Especially, when I moved to Connecticut in seventh grade.
Everyone already had their social groups and friend sets.
So it’s kind of hard for me as the new kid to go up to a group of random people,
and, you know, act as I was their friend from kindergarten.
And it took me a lot of time and courage to get used to the changes
and be comfortable with my life.
I was like Harry Potter when he first got Hogwarts -
scared and confused.
And I know we’ve all been through a transition like this.
Maybe it’s not moving every three years like me,
but it could be definitely a loss of a loved one,
a broken relationship with someone
or any time period where you had challenges
and had to overcome them.
However, I believe that these transitions are necessary
if you want to move on to the next chapter.
So let’s look at something we all know -
The Lion King.
I think we all know that story.
If you don’t, then I’m sorry.
I don’t know what you’ve been doing all this childhood,
but in The Lion King, Mufasa, Simba’s dad passes away
or, you know, gets killed by Scar.
And this leads to Simba running away and meeting Timon, the meerkat
and Pumbaa, the warthog.
And as time goes by, Simba learns to not worry about it,
or, you know, that famous line “Hakuna matata,” right?
I think we all know that.
But without Mufasa’s death,
Simba simply wouldn't have been able to learn that lesson
and at last beat Uncle Scar and, you know, save the king.
These conflicts and obstacles are what make the story interesting.
Just imagine Superman without any sort of villain
or any kind of action.
It would be a story about a random guy in a weird looking suit.
So no one likes a story without some form of action
or one continuous chapter.
That’s why most stories have some forms of conflict or some action
that the protagonist and the characters in the story have to overcome.
And same goes with our lives.
We may face challenges, but all that matters is our reactions.
So if you have a dream here, it could be anything -
a job you want to have or a feat you want to complete,
or maybe a food you want to eat -
then I say go for it.
See the difficulties in your life
as the opportunities they are, and have those challenges straight on.
For me, my dream is to travel the world and create content to inspire others.
I am right now a photographer,
and I am also a very successful YouTube content creator
with one ...
hundred subscribers.
You know, it would have been so cool today if I came up,
and was like one million subscribers.
I would be that cool kid at school,
but obviously not at the moment.
But you know what they all say?
It’s not all about the numbers.
And I really enjoy making these little videos.
So, it’s good,
and I don’t plan on stopping for a while.
But however, when I first started out, I was actually very hesitant.
I consistently asked myself these questions, like,
“Is this a good idea, man?
Am I going anywhere with this career path,
or am I just wasting time, or are people just going to laugh at me at school?”
It took me like three months to just even start
or click start recording and actually do something?
But after I finally made up my mind and started making these videos,
I enjoyed life much more.
Not everything in our life goes perfectly our way.
We fail, we cry,
get our heart broken, get rejected and fail again.
But again, this is what makes our life, our story interesting.
So whether your dream is to travel the world
or become a lawyer or become a super successful YouTuber like I am,
then chase it,
because I’m still very young, and I may not know a lot,
but if there’s one thing that I’ve learned in these few years
is that the most important part is to go out of your comfort zone.
Take that first step
and begin to write the greatest story ever told.
You know, your story might not be as interesting
as the Lion King or the Harry Potter,
but you sure can get close.
Thank you.
(Applause)