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Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2014-01-16
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzPbY9ufnQY
really really really excited to be here I kinda wanna tell you a little bit more and the playlist the basics because we don't really know anything about my syndrome I was born with this very very rare syndrome that only two of the people of the world including myself that we know of half basically what this Indian causes that I can not keenly yes and just how
does it as good as the aids I could eat absolutely whatever I want whenever I want and I won't really get it anyways I'm gonna be twenty five in March and I would never weighed over about six the four pounds my entire life what his is in college I hit lighted highest ever news there but it was a giant hub of Twinkies doughnuts chips skittles and
my roommate would say I could hear you at twelve thirty reaching under your bed to get food but unlike you know let it's alright savings because there are benefits to this center on their benefits not being able to gain weight there benefits to being visually impaired their benefits to being kind of really small a lot of people think of the how the world are you saying
there's benefits when you can only see out of one eye who will always tell you what the benefits are because they're great I wear contacts contact half up contact let me wear my reading glasses half off prescription if somebody is annoying me being prudent stand on my right side even then I don't even know you're standing there right now I sound like this I have no
clue that there's this whole site in the room also being so long I am very willing to volunteer myself to go to weight watchers go to some gym and say hi and lazy I won't fear poster child's put my face on what I really need it I'll say hi I use this program look how well aware even though there are really amazing things that have come
from this Indian there also things that have been very very difficult as you can imagine growing up I was raised one hundred and fifty first St normally whenever I was my parents first child and when I was born the doctors told my mum your daughter has no amniotic fluid around her I don't so when I was four and it was a miracle that I can now
screaming the doctors told my parents we just want to warn you expect your daughter to never be able to talk walk crawl think produce anything by herself now as first parent seeking first appearance of it I think that my parents would say well no why why why are we getting our first child to have all these unknown problems that's all they did the first thing they
told the doctor was we want to see her and we're going to take her home and left her in research in the best of our abilities and that's what they did I credit pretty much everything that I've done in my life to my parents my dad is here today and I'm on this at home watching she is recovering from surgery and she has abandoned the glue
that's held our family together in giving you this strange to seem that she's going through so much that she has this fighting spirit that she's instilled in me that I I had to still proudly been able to stand in front of people and say you know what I've had a really difficult life but that's okay eight that's okay things have been scary things have been tough
one of the biggest things that I had to deal with growing up was something that I am pretty sure every single one of us in this room is dealt with before can you guess what that is section to be he has got who is Nnamdi fully I really the only thing the I see plums OneNote I had to do pulling a laugh but as I said
I was raised very normally so when started kindergarten I have Julie no idea that I looked at no clue I couldn't see that I look different from other kids I think in that kind of as a big slap a reality for a five year old because I went into school first day decked out with Pocahontas here I wasn't ready I lean endlessly backpack that look like
a turtle shell those bigger than me and I walked up to a little girl a small matter she looked up at me like I was a monster like I was the scariest thing she'd ever seen in her life my first appearance in a season really rude a monthlong kid and she's alone missing out so I'll just go over here and play with blocks our boys I
thought the daily can get better and unfortunately it ended the day kind of got worse and worse in a lot of people just wanted to have absolutely nothing to do with me and I couldn't understand why why what did I do I don't think so then in my mind I was still really cool kid so I had to go home and ask my parents what's wrong
with me what can I do why don't they like and they sat me down and they said Lizzy the only thing that's different about you is that your smaller than the other kids you have this syndrome but it's not going to define who you are they said go to school pick your head up smile continue to be yourself and people see that you're just like them
and so that's what I did I want you to think and ask yourself this in your head right now what defines you who are you is that where you come from is your background is that your friends what is it what defines who you are as a person it's taking me a very long time to figure out what defines me for so long I thought would
define me was my outer periods I thought that my little tiny lakes in my little arms and a little face was ugly I thought I was discussing I hated it when I wake up in the morning I was going to middle school and looking in the mirror getting ready in the king can I just brother center mall it would make my life so much easier if
I could just brought it up I can look like the other kids I wouldn't have to buy clothes and head toward the explorer on it I would have to buy stuff that was the dazzled what I was trying to be like the cool kids I wouldn't wish and pray and hope and do what ever I could spray that I would wake up in the morning I
would be different and I wouldn't have to deal with the struggles it's what I wanted every single day and every single day I was disappointed I had an amazing amazing support system around me who never pity me who I am there to pick me up if I'm sad who are there to laugh with me during the good times and they taught me that even now even
though I haven't seen him even though things are hard I can't let that define me my life was put into my hands just like your lives are put into yours you are the person in the front seat of your car you are the one who decides whether your car goes down a bad path or a good path you are the one that decides what defines you
let me tell you it could be really easy to I mean really hard to figure out what what defines it there are times I would just get so annoyed and frustrated I don't care what defines me when I was in high school I found a video the fortunately that somebody posted at me labeling me the world's ugliest woman ever four million piece in this video eight
seconds on no sound thousands opponents people saying will lead please please just do little world a favor put a gun to your head and kill yourself think about that if people did it people closing that stranger still jealous I cried my eyes out of course and I was ready to kind of fight back in something kinda clicked in my head and I thought I was going
to leave it alone I kind of started realizing that my life is in my hands I could be there choose to make this really good or I can choose to make this really bad I could either be grateful and open my eyes and realize the things that I do have and making those are things that define the I can't see out of one eye but I
can see out of the other I might get sick a lot I have really nice hair think like the best little section right here nnova train of thought okay thinking thinking thinking okay like you needed to see me happy I could choose the kind of the upset with what I have and still kinda complain about it but then I started realizing am I going to let
the people who called me a monster defying me and I didn't like the people who said kill it with fire define me no I'm gonna let my goals in my success in my accomplishments be the things that define me not my outer appearance not the fact that I'm visually impaired not the fact that I had the syndrome that nobody knows what it is so I tell
myself I'm going to work my butt off and do whatever I could to make myself better because in my mind the best way that I think it back at all those people who made fun of me cooties me who called me Ardolino called me a monster was to make myself better and to show them you know what tell me those negative things I wouldn't turn them
around and when to use them as a ladder to climb up to Michael's that's what I did I pull myself I wanted to be motivational speaker I wanna write a book graduate college had real family my own career eight years later I'm sitting in front of you still doing motivational speaking first thing I accomplished it I wanted to write a book in a couple weeks I
will be submitting the manuscript for my third book I wanted to graduate college and I just finished I'm getting a degree I'm getting a degree communication studies from Texas state university in some markets and I have a minor in English I wasn't really tried sees real life experience well while I was getting my degree in that professors or not having it but I wanted to have
Leslie Leone family mail career and a family fires kind of down the line my career part I feel like I'm million miles thick considering the fact that when I decided I wanted to be a motivational speaker I went home I signed a part of my laptop went to Google type bid how to be loose in the speaker I'm high even joking and work my butt off
I use the people who are telling me that I could do this to motivate me I use their negativity to light my fire to keep going use that use that use that negativity that you have in your life to make yourself better because I guarantee you variant CEO he will win now I want to end with asking you again I want you to leave here and
