What happens when a child's pain is hidden in plain sight. Too often we miss the signs before it's too late. That was true for a teenager I once worked with.He hid his pain behind a bright smile until one night his anxiety spiraled into near lethal self harm and a mobile crisis team was rushed to his home. I got the call close to midnight. I could hear sirens in the background, his parents' voices trembling, and we were heartbroken, wondering, "How did it get this far?" You know, I had taken hard calls befo ...

[Applause] I am the lucky father of Andrew, Sarah, Ryan, and Jack. And as parents, we teach our children to play nice in the sandbox. This generally means to treat others with respect, to share toys, uh to avoid unnecessary conflict, and definitely do not throw sand in the other kids' faces. For the past 18 and a half years, I've taught a bipartisan leadership class here at Bradley University. In fact, I think I may be the only college professor in America that specifically focuses a course on how bipartisa ...

Are you a permenopausal woman or are you supporting someone who is permenopause? It might be a new word for you. But I am sure that you have met some one of us or maybe you are one of us. You just don't know it yet. Permenopause is the first part and the beginning of the menopause transition leading up to menopause, which is a woman's last bleeding. It lasts for several years and may start in your mid4s, for some earlier, others later. When the ovaries reduce their activity, the hormonal levels drop and can ...

Please welcome Jessica Wright. So I used to be afraid of my own shadow. Now that sounds really crazy, counterintuitive, all the things, right.But you hear it often. Girl, you scared of your own shadow. Get over here.Stop doing that. And you have to think about what your shadow really is. It's just another version of yourself.So it might be a darker side. It might be something that you may not want the whole world to see. But your shadow is still you.After heartbreak, devastation, depression, all the things ...

Please welcome Dr. . Jenny A. Barrow.I'm hiding under my mother's bed as my father is pounding on the door. Boom. Boom. Boom.My heart is racing. I'm petrified about what will happen to my mother and me. So, I shrink even smaller, hoping invisibility will keep us both safe.And in that moment, at only five years old, I make a silent vow. This will not be my life. When I turned 14, we left the Dominican Republic and moved to the United States carrying this vow in my heart.I didn't speak English. I didn't under ...

Please welcome Ncoan Lewis. I'm 18 years old living at the Ronald McDonald House and across the street, my newborn daughter is fighting for her life in the NICU. She's already had surgeries, tubes, machines, beeping monitors.I'm scared. I'm alone. And I'm exhausted.Every morning, I crossed that street with my heart in my throat, praying that she was still here. I stayed by her side for weeks, then months. Eventually, she got her own room.Even after I finally got an apartment, I was still at that hospital ev ...

Please welcome Dana L. Cox. You wake up every morning and you pour love into everyone.Your partner, your kids, your family, your friends, your employees. You encourage them. You defend them. You lift them up.You would never allow them to tear themselves down. Not them, not anyone. But when you look at yourself in the mirror, the voice you use with yourself sounds nothing like the voice you use with them.You notice every line in your face, especially the new ones. Everything that doesn't look the way it used ...

Please welcome Una Stevenson. The year is 1986. Seven siblings, all under 10 years old, are scattered across parts of the country.Different cities, different homes, different strangers assigned to care for them. The youngest is just three months old. The oldest barely nine.None of them old enough to understand why they were separated or what it means to begin life as a statistic. Now it's 1989. Those same seven siblings are brought back together and are sitting in the living room that feels unfamiliar but s ...

Please welcome Ivakar Vijay Sarati. How many of us here believe the tax system is unfair. Literally every adult in the room, right.That belief in itself is more expensive than the taxes. And that belief doesn't come from theory. Comes from lived experiences.And mine began in 2009. 2009 it was the second year of entrepreneurship and we were newly married and expecting our first kid. At that time we received an insanely large contract from an African country company something which would have changed our life ...

Please welcome Tanuin. The other day I was driving and suddenly my GPS disconnected. By a show of hands, has this ever happened to anyone.That moment when the voice are telling you where to turn, go silent. And that screen that been showing you the map goes blank and you feel that panic rise in your chest. Now day we rely so much on GPS that the idea of going anywhere without it feels impossible and without realizing it we expect the same thing from life.We want to have every step mapped out, every risk man ...