What if you went 17 years of your life without knowing you were blind? Although it seems that that could never possibly happen, it did. For a young woman named Caroline Casey, the world is a dark place in which she must create her own pictures all the time. For the first 17 years of her life, Casey never knew that she was any different than the rest of the people in the world. In December of 2010, Caroline Casey gave a TED talk inspiring people to challenge themselves to do the unthinkable. She made it clear that if you tell yourself that you can accomplish something, you will eventually succeed in your goal. The most important aspect of success in her opinion is to believe in yourself. Casey believes that no one in the entire world can stop you from achieving you dreams except yourself. She challenges the world everyday to push themselves past their own limitations by not restricting herself to live within certain regulations because she is blind.
Caroline Casey is unique in many ways. Her audience at the TED talk conference in 2010 did not realize how unique she is until about five minutes in when she revealed to them that she had been blind since the day she was born. Surprising her listeners was a very effective technique because up until that point, no one understood just how extraordinary Caroline Casey is. Additionally by waiting until later on to tell them she was blind, she made the audience judge her for who she truly is and not by her disability. She often made jokes about blind people, which made the listeners feel more comfortable knowing that she is ok with who she is. Her tone of voice was filled passion and excitement showing that she cared and meant every single word she said to them that day. Due to her various techniques, Caroline Casey left her audience in awe of how amazing of a person she truly is.
Casey’s presentation style was simple and basic. Her presentation consisted of her speaking and nothing else. When she spoke she was able to connect with her audience and did not need any slides, videos, or pictures to accentuate her points. By forcing her audience to create their own pictures about what she spoke on, she allowed them to somewhat see what is like for her to do all the time. Her remarkable story was more than enough without any help.
Two key points in Caroline Casey’s presentation especially matter to the world, to education, and to me. The first point is that no one can judge you if you don’t allow them to. This is important to the world because if people believed in this statement, people would not hesitate to share their ideas for fear of others judging them. The same goes for education, students and teachers alike would not hesitate to put themselves out there and try new ways of learning. Personally, if I did not dictate my daily life by what society thinks of me, my life would be much less stressful and I would be more likely to share my ideas more often. The second point goes hand in hand with Casey’s first point. She preaches that no one can stop you from succeeding except yourself. If you believe in your dreams and try hard enough, anything is possible. No one in the entire world can be limited by the requirements of another person if they put their mind to it. In school, no student can limit themselves to a certain grade. A student can always push themselves to try harder and do better in school. Personally, this lesson teaches me that no coach, teacher, parent, friend, or enemy can get in the way of something that I truly care about. If I push myself to be the best that I can be, I will succeed eventually in whatever I want.
No comments:
Post a Comment