My favourite Ted Talk was To This Day by Shane Koyczan. Shane talks about the pain and darkness he felt in his child hood. The way kids would bully him, call him "Yogi Bear" and "Pork Chops". He explained how all these personal attacks he would get, had turned him into the one thing he hated most. A bully. Shane had dreams, he wanted to be a wrestler or a writer. However people told him his dreams were unrealistic and that he had to change them. Looks like in the end he proved them all wrong, because now Shane is best known for his poem "To This Day".
Shane's poem is about the "Bullied and the Beautiful" as he says. He writes about a boy and girl and how they were brutally bullied, each one having scars on their tattered heart. He tells a story, a deep passionate story on how our words and our actions affects everyone, even our selves. Picture a boy. This boy wasn't wanted by the mother who birthed him, so he was put up for adoption. He took a turn to pills, hoping to help with depression when all it did was make things worse. To think the sadness this boy feels wasn't enough, he was bullied. Constantly having to bow his head in shame at school. Now Picture a girl. A girl with a beautiful birth mark on the side of her face. She gets picked on and called names all because of a different shade of skin. If you think this bulling and harassment stops after school think again, she is tortured with words for her whole life. Now picture Shane. Beautiful heart melting Shane. A bigger kid, who was put down for his weight, for his dreams. These three kids are all the same. They are different, they are beautiful, but they are also picked on. For what? Fun? You call that fun?
Shane's Ted Talk affected me. A lot. He came out, talking about his childhood. Sure laughing at it now, but you could feel the pain he felt. When he began sighting his poem, the emotion in the room changed like that. Despair filled the room, for the boy, the girl and Shane, all of which he spoke of, were abused. Maybe not physically but mentally shunned. When I was in middle school, which really was only a year away, I was bullied for crazy things that people shouldn't even be thinking of. This Ted Talk made me realize, that the way people perceive you does not matter. Yes it hurts, but "they were wrong" as Shane says. Shane's Ted Talk, his words, the way he spoke, it made me very sad. However seeing him, a bullied boy who has been to hell and back, up on that stage sharing his story, it makes you see that the bad can be over come with joy and happiness. Let's stop the harassment, and change the way our generation is looked at. Let's end the pain, together.
Shane's poem is about the "Bullied and the Beautiful" as he says. He writes about a boy and girl and how they were brutally bullied, each one having scars on their tattered heart. He tells a story, a deep passionate story on how our words and our actions affects everyone, even our selves. Picture a boy. This boy wasn't wanted by the mother who birthed him, so he was put up for adoption. He took a turn to pills, hoping to help with depression when all it did was make things worse. To think the sadness this boy feels wasn't enough, he was bullied. Constantly having to bow his head in shame at school. Now Picture a girl. A girl with a beautiful birth mark on the side of her face. She gets picked on and called names all because of a different shade of skin. If you think this bulling and harassment stops after school think again, she is tortured with words for her whole life. Now picture Shane. Beautiful heart melting Shane. A bigger kid, who was put down for his weight, for his dreams. These three kids are all the same. They are different, they are beautiful, but they are also picked on. For what? Fun? You call that fun?
Shane's Ted Talk affected me. A lot. He came out, talking about his childhood. Sure laughing at it now, but you could feel the pain he felt. When he began sighting his poem, the emotion in the room changed like that. Despair filled the room, for the boy, the girl and Shane, all of which he spoke of, were abused. Maybe not physically but mentally shunned. When I was in middle school, which really was only a year away, I was bullied for crazy things that people shouldn't even be thinking of. This Ted Talk made me realize, that the way people perceive you does not matter. Yes it hurts, but "they were wrong" as Shane says. Shane's Ted Talk, his words, the way he spoke, it made me very sad. However seeing him, a bullied boy who has been to hell and back, up on that stage sharing his story, it makes you see that the bad can be over come with joy and happiness. Let's stop the harassment, and change the way our generation is looked at. Let's end the pain, together.