The Power of Words | Taylor Bertolini | TEDxNSU – YouTube Dictation Transcript & Vocabulary

1.[Music] so when I was going to high school I watched every themed movie possible I watched things like grease The Breakfast Club High School Musical I thought that going into high school I could dance on the cafeteria tables and go to ten do to detention with a bunch of misfits I was sorely mistaken I'll lead into the story by also saying that when I was going into high school none of the kids that I had grown up with in elementary school and middle school went to the same school that I went to so I was essentially by myself so the first day of school I decided that it was a smart idea to sit in the bathroom and eat my lunch by myself very very cliche I also spent the whole day texting my mom and when I say the entire day I texted her when I was going to the bathroom when I was going to class when I was leaving school I just didn't want to seem like the girl who sat in the back of the room and had nobody to talk to I just wanted to seem like I had friends so days weeks months went by and I began to become friends and acquaintances with people I began to develop connections with them but they weren't really meaningful they didn't really have much substance to them so with this feeling of being alone I kind of developed a fight-or-flight instinct I would be in the cafeteria with hundreds of other students and I would find myself just wanting to run away and I don't really know why I had that feeling I just felt like I didn't have anybody to turn to and where was I gonna go when before all of this before high school I could dance at a dance recital in front of hundreds of people even sometimes thousands of them but now I found myself extremely extremely nervous and with this feeling of being nervous I began to develop this feeling of worthlessness I felt like I didn't really matter to anyone with the feeling of nervous alone hopeless I began to felt worthless and it just kept consuming me now when you call yourself ugly a lot multiple times you're gonna start to believe yourself so if your brain decides to tell you that you're alone you have no friends and you don't matter over time you're going to believe that so I had myself convinced that I just didn't really matter anymore and going into winter break that December I had a full-on meltdown when my mom asked me how I was doing I screamed I cried I'm pretty sure I even pushed the dining room table when I have a very sweet and kind disposition I promise so my mom made a vow to me that we would move our house so I could go to school with the kids I'd grown up with a better learning environment and I thought that that would solve my problem I didn't know what these feelings were I was experiencing I could give them a name depression and anxiety but giving them a name didn't really do anything for me because when I started school that next January our classes had changed and I decided it was a smart idea to sit myself in the back of the classroom because nobody misses the girl that sits in the back of the room I started to say goodbye and not see you later until this one day when this blonde haired guy walked right in the room and started reading his schedule out loud now I mentioned our classes had changed that January so he was reading his schedule out loud and I realized wow I have three out of the same four classes with this guy so I muttered that quietly under my breath and somehow this guy heard me with this huge smile he walked right up to me right in the back of the room gave me a really big high-five and said I'm gonna see you later and you know what he did he found me in every single one of my classes he got to know me he knew my name he knew stuff about me and he began to become a really sincere friend and that's all that it took all it took was his kind word and his smile to make me feel like I wasn't by myself anymore I eventually told him a few years later what his kind gesture meant to me and he was awestruck he had no idea that his genuine personality mattered to me so leaving nuts to her going into something a little bit lighter my mom she leaves notes everywhere and when I say everywhere I literally mean everywhere she goes on trips sometimes for work and she decided to leave notes in the bathroom they were really cute as you can tell but then I kept finding them there it was getting a little bit repetitive then she decided to leave note in my shower yeah it was a little weird at first but now I'm used to it but then bathroom shower next came the pantry where we keep our cups and in my vanity so when I was getting ready for class in the morning I would have a note from her she would sit down and think about me she would script her love to me on a simple piece of paper now I will admit there was one time that did get me in trouble she went on a work trip and told me to do my laundry before she left and I said that I did it an hour before she was set to come home I decided to finally do my laundry so I opened up the washer and right inside was a note that one kind of got me in a little bit of trouble but at least they did my laundry right so with those notes and that kind smile it showed me compassion empathy how to care for other people and with those qualities I have them with me today and with that I have a great a big love for love letters now they might seem really simple but I'll explain there's this amazing organization called more love letters they're a global organization that uses the power of social media to give notes and letters to people who really need them now they have a little sister version kind of like a little affiliate it's called campus cursive and I've had the great pleasure of starting my very own chapter here at Nova now we're the first chapter in the state of Florida and there are 80 other chapters worldwide we do some pretty cool stuff we do these things called love letter bundles we write 15 to 30 letters to somebody who was nominated by a friend faculty or staff member now this bundle in specific was very special to me because this girl reached back out to us and let us know that when she was receiving this bundle of letters she had escaped from an abusive relationship to Florida she was told that her track career was over because she had an injury that could not be fixed she felt alone and then there was a knock at her door and she opened it and saw a bundle of letters laying on the floor and I'm sure she might have been a little bit confused but then she read through those letters and realized that there were complete strangers who cared about her she shared with us that that was the first time in forever that she didn't feel alone now we do more than just love letter bundles we leave notes on a take what you need bored you leave something behind that somebody else might need and they go ahead and take it we host events about empowerment love kindness we just want everybody to know that they are never truly alone because we are standing right there with them and all it is is a simple piece of paper with words on them know it smiles with kindness with notes and love it's very impactful it even saved my life I know for a fact that you can do the same thing for someone else all you have to do is take a step out of your own box and think about someone else how your words can truly affect someone else thank you [Applause]