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Ted Talk is coming to Hamline University (HU) in April 2019 and I was chosen to speak!
This is a huge opportunity for me and I am under the impression that a lot of my family do not realize how big of a deal this is for me. I also have to face the fact that a lot of my family is from rural MN and just does not pay attention to things like this. Despite that I have received joyous responses from my close friends about this upcoming Ted Talk.
Since I realized the great impact of Ted Talks by listening to them on podcasts and watching them on YouTube. I have wanted to give a talk. I just never imagined that it would be this soon in my life.
Just because I have wanted to do a talk doesn't mean that I have thought of the topic that I want to do it on. Which is surprising for me, I like to plan waaay ahead as soon as I find a new interest. I guess the topic depends on the my mood and the environment of the talk--which is what I learned from choosing the topic of my talk.
Initially, I was going to do a talk on disability or invisible illnesses--just another topic that I have a strong expertise on. However, since this Ted Talk is specifically coming to a college campus and because I had a rough time finding a narrow topic about disability and illness that I wanted to focus on--I decided that I wanted to do a talk on rape. Rape is a more "fitting" topic to be discussed on a college campus for many obvious reasons that do not need to be explained here.
I knew that rape was going to be my topic of choice but I knew I needed to make my topic into something more specific and narrow. I knew I needed to pinpoint my topic to something to make it more of a "unique" topic. For some reason, the topic came to me immediately. I realized that many of my relationships have been affected by my traumatic experience of rape.
Back in December, I decided to take this topic and run. I applied for Ted Talks hoping that I would get in but doubting I would. Now that I have been chosen to speak, my anxiety has skyrocketed. But in a good way. I want this talk to be perfect. I want to make sure that I get my points across. I want to make sure that voices are heard. I want people to know what it is like after the initial trauma of rape. The initial trauma is terrible but the affects afterwards are constant and forever.
I have taken this topic and have composed a hella draft that I have been working on daily.
The Ted Talk will be on April 5th. It will be filmed and put on YouTube and all of their other platforms for their social media. This is just surreal to me. Also, another reason I am taking this so seriously.
The other day I got an email from my "speaking buddy," which (to my knowledge) is a person affiliated with HU and has given a Ted Talk before. I was assigned with HU's Legal Studies Professor Leondra Hanson. I had her as a professor during my senior semester at HU. She was my Senior Seminar prof. and she gave a Ted Talk in the Summer of 2018. I watched it and was just blown away by her accuracy and story. Here is a link. If you watch her talk, which I highly recommend--I am sure you'll understand how excited and lucky to be working with her.
The other day I got an email from my "speaking buddy," which (to my knowledge) is a person affiliated with HU and has given a Ted Talk before. I was assigned with HU's Legal Studies Professor Leondra Hanson. I had her as a professor during my senior semester at HU. She was my Senior Seminar prof. and she gave a Ted Talk in the Summer of 2018. I watched it and was just blown away by her accuracy and story. Here is a link. If you watch her talk, which I highly recommend--I am sure you'll understand how excited and lucky to be working with her.
I will keep y'all posted on how my prep is going, when the tickets are on sale, and when it will be posted on YouTube.
Until then, wish me luck in prepping. Thank you all so so much for the support.
