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TEDx Talks
Published: 2017-02-02
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY5SatbZMAo
so consumer I am a journalist my job is to talk to people from all walks of life all over the world today I want to tell you why I decided to do this with my life and what I've learned my story begins in Caracas Venezuela in South America where I grew up please that to me was and always will be filled with magic and wonder from
a very young age my parents wanted me to have a wider view the world I remember one time when I was around seven years old my dad came up to me and said Madonna I'm gonna send you and your little sister who was six at the time to a place where nobody speaks Spanish I want you to experience different cultures he went on and on about
the benefits of spending an entire summer in this summer camp in the United States stressing a little phrase that I didn't pay too much attention to what the time you never know what the future holds meanwhile in my seven year old mind I was thinking we were gonna get to summer camp in Miami maybe it was going to be even better and we were going to
go over further north to Orlando where Mickey Mouse webs I got really excited my dad however had a slightly different playing out from god our guests he sent us stuff Brainerd Minnesota Mickey Mouse was not up there and with no cell phone no Snapchat her Instagram I could look up any information we get there and one of the first things I noticed was that the other
kids hair was several shades of blonde and most of them have blue eyes meanwhile this is what we look like the first night camp director gather everyone around the campfire and said kids we have a very international camp this year the up band's heroes are here from Venezuela the other kids look at us as if we are from another planet they would ask us things like
do you know what a hamburger is or do you go to school in Adan Kira could new I will try to answer in my broken English and they would just laugh and I know they were not trying to be mean they were just trying to understand who we were and make a correlation with the world they know we could either be like them or like characters
out of a book filled with the ventures like Aladdin or The Jungle Book we certainly didn't look like them we do speak their language we were different and when you're seven years old that hurts but I have my little sister to take care of she cried every day at summer camp so I decided to put on a brave face and embrace everything I could about the
American way of life we later day we called the summer camp experiment for eight years in different cities that many Americans have even heard of what I remember most about these moments was when I finally clicked with someone making a friend was a special award everybody wants to feel valued and accepted and we think it should happen spontaneously but it doesn't when you're different you have
to work at belonging you have to be either really helpful smart funny anything to be cruel for the crowd you wanna hang out with later on when I was in high school my dad expanded on his summer plan and from Caracas he sent me to Wallingford Connecticut for senior year of high school this time I remember daydreaming on the plane about the American high school experience
with a locker it was going to be perfect just like in my favorite TV show saved by the bell I get there and they tell me that my assigned roommate is eagerly waiting I opened the door and there she was sitting on the bed wave a headscarf her name is Fatima and she was Muslim from Bahrain and she was not what I expected she probably sensed
my disappointment when I looked at her because I didn't do too much to hide it see as a teenager I wanted to fit in even more I wanted to be popular or maybe have a boyfriend for prom and I felt that fought to mom just got in the way with her shyness and her strict dress code I didn't realize that I was making her feel like
the kids of summer camp made me feel this was the high school equivalent of asking her to you know what a hamburger is I was consumed by my own selfishness and unable to put myself in her shoes I have to be honest with you we only lasted a couple months together because she was later sent to live with a counselor is that of other students now
remember thinking I should be okay she's just different you see when we label someone as different it the humanizes them in a way they become the other they're not worthy of our time not our problem and in fact the the other or probably be because of our problems so how do we recognize our blind spots it begins by understanding what makes you different by embracing those
traits only then can you begin to appreciate what makes other special and I remember when this hit me it was a couple months after that I had a found a boyfriend for prom and made a group of friends and practically forgotten about Fatimah until everybody signed on to participate in this talent show for charity you needed to offer a talent for auction and it seemed like
everybody had something special to offer some kids were going to play the violin others were going to recite the theater monologue in our members thinking we don't practice talents like these back home but I was determined to find something of value so that is how I show comes in I get up on stage with my little boombox appeared on the side of a press play and
a song by my favorite emerging artist Shekinah comes up and I go whenever wherever we're meant to be to gather and I said my name is Nadia and I'm gonna auction a dance class and it seemed like the whole school raise their hand to be my dance class really stood out from like the tenth spiraling costs are for that day and going back to my dorm
room I didn't feel different I feel really special and that's when I started thinking about fat tomorrow the person that I had failed to see a special when I first met her she was on the Middle East just like checking us family was from the Middle East she could've probably taught me a thing or two about belly dancing had I been open to it now I
want you all to take that sticker that was given to you at the beginning our session today where you wrote down what makes you special I want to look at it you're watching at home did piece of paper and write down what makes you different you may feel guarded when you look at it maybe even a little shade maybe even proud you need to begin to
embrace it remember it is the first step in appreciating what makes other special but even back home to Venezuela I began to understand how these experiences were changing me being able to speak different languages to navigate all these different people and places it gave me a unique sensibility I was finally beginning to understand the importance putting myself in other people's shoes and that is a big
part of the reason why I decided to become a journalist especially being from part of the world that is often labeled the backyard the illegal aliens third world the others I wanted to do something to change that those right around the time however when the Venezuelan government shutdown biggest television station in our country censorship was growing and my dad came up to me once again and
said how are you going to be a journalist here you have to leave and that's when it hit me that's what he had been preparing me for that is what the future held for me so in two thousand eight I packed my bags and I came to the United States without a return ticket this time I was painfully aware that a twenty four years old I
was becoming a refugee of sorts an immigrant the other once again and now for good I was able to come on a scholarship to study journalism and I remember when they gave me my first assignment to cover the historic election of president Barack Obama and I felt so lucky so hopeful I was like yes this is it I've come to post racial America with the notion
of us than them is being eroded and will probably be eradicated in my lifetime boy was I wrong right why didn't Barack Obama's presidency alleviate racial tensions in our country why do some people still feel threatened by immigrants LGBTQ in minority groups who are just trying to find a space in this United States that should be for all of us I don't have the answers back
then but on November eighth twenty sixteen when Donald Trump became our president it became clear that a large part of the electorate sees them as the others some see people coming to take their jobs or potential terrorists who speak a different language meanwhile minority groups oftentimes just see hatred intolerance and narrow mindedness on the other side it's like we're stuck in these bubbles that nobody wants
to burst and the only way to do it the only way to get out of it is to realize that being different also means thinking differently it takes courage to show respect in the words of Voltaire I may not agree with what you have to say but I will fight to the death to defend your right to say failing to see anything good on the other
side makes a dialogue impossible without a dialogue we will keep repeating the same mistakes because we will not learn anything new I covered the twenty sixteen election for NBC news it was my first big assignment in this mainstream network or I have crossed over from Spanish television and I wanted to do something different I watched election results with undocumented families feel sort of sharing that moment
with people who weren't citizens but actually stood the most to lose that might when it became apparent the Donald Trump was winning this eight year old girl name Angelina rushed up to me in tears song does she asked me if her mom was going to be deported now I hugged her back and I said it's going to be okay but I really didn't know this was
the photo we took that night forever ingrained in my heart here was this little girl who was around the same age I was when I went to camp in Brainerd she already knows she is the other she walks home from school in fear every day her mom can be taken away so how do we put ourselves in Angelina shoes how do we make her understand she
is special and not simply on worthy of having her family together by giving camera time to her and families like hers I tried to make people see them as human beings and not simply illegal aliens yes they broke the law and they should pay a penalty for it but they've also given everything for this country like many other immigrants before them have I've already told you
how my past personal growth started to end I want to tell you how I hit the worst bump in the road yet one that shook me to my very core the day April tenth twenty fourteen I was driving to the studio and I got a call from my parents are you on the air they asked I immediately knew something was wrong what happened I said it's
your sister she's been in a car accident it was as if my heart stopped my hands gripped the steering wheel and I remember hearing the words it is unlikely she will ever walk again they say your life can change in a split second mine did at that moment my sister went from being my successful other half only a year apart in age to not being able
to move her legs set up or get dressed by herself and this wasn't like summer camp where I could magically make it better this was terrifying throughout the course of two years my sister underwent fifteen surgeries and she spent most of that time in a wheelchair but that wasn't even the worst of it the worst was something so painful it's hard to put into words even
now it was the way people looked at her look at us changed people were unable to see a successful lawyer or a millennial ways %HESITATION sharp wit and a kind heart everywhere we went I realize that people just saw poor girl in a wheelchair they were unable to see anything beyond that fighting like a warrior taken thankfully tell you that today my sister is walking and
has recovered beyond anyone's expectations thank you but during that traumatic ordeal I learned there are differences that simply sock and it's hard to find positive in them this is just not better off because of what happened she taught me you can't let those differences define you being able to re imagine yourself beyond what other people see that is the toughest task of all but it's also
the most beautiful you see we all come to this world in a body people wave physical or neurological difficulties environmentally impacted communities immigrants boys girls boys want to dress girls girls with veils women who'd been sexually assaulted athletes to bend their knee is a sign of protest black white Asian native American my sister you or me we all want what everyone wants to dream and to
achieve but sometimes society tells us that we tell ourselves we don't fit the mold well if you look at my story from being born somewhere different to belly dancing in high school to telling stories you would normally see on TV what makes me different is what has made me stand out and be successful I have traveled the world and talk to people from all walks of
life you know what I've learned the single thing everyone of us has in common is being human so take the stand to defend your race the human race what's appeal to it let's be humanists before and after everything else and I want you to take that sticker that piece of paper where you wrote down what makes you different and I want you to celebrate it today
and everyday shouted from the rooftops I also encourage you to be curious and ask what is on other people's pieces of paper what makes them different let's celebrate those imperfections that make us special I hope that it teaches you that nobody has a claim on the word normal we are all different we are all quirky and unique and that is what makes us wonderfully human thank
