This Fall my daughter Lucy joined the speech club at school. This surprised no-one as she is a natural performer and attends a performance arts academy at her High School. At the speech club each student chooses one or more events to perform at weekly meets. Lucy is doing Humorous Interpretation. Because of Co-vid all the performances are virtual.
Amy and I both volunteered to help judge the events. We had done similar volunteering when Lucy was in speech tournaments in grade school. Again, the judging is virtual. I am extremely impressed with the talent these kids have. One event that I judged at the last tournament was where students perform other peoples speeches. The 6 I judged were all Ted Talks. While I am certain that I could not share these performances on my blog and would not even think to do so, the source material of theses speeches were so compelling that I plan on sharing some of them here.
I have to say, that with all the other videos, I have shared here over the years I am surprised I never thought to share a Ted Talk before.
I am starting with I am Depressed by Diana Page as Mental Illness is a pretty big part of our family and I think this speaker (and the student who performed it in the tournament) both do a great job of bringing a topic many people still feel uncomfortable discussing and making it a safe topic.
As Fred Rogers so elegantly put it ...
“Anything that's human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone.”