[applause] [applause] I was sitting at the dinner table. My babushka was sitting right across from me. My mom was sitting to my right and my dad was sitting to my left.My babushko is pecking at her little branzino while she was watching one of her Russian films on the TV. When she glances over, she sees me not eating. And then she says to me, which in English translates to, "If you don't want to eat this, eat nails." Now, in Russian, this is nothing but a harmless and simply friendly joke.Yet, when translat ...

Good evening. My name is Leia Daen. And I'm Stella Espen Carter. And before we begin, we wanted to show you something. These are pictures of us from first grade. And they're not here to make anyone feel emotional, but they're here to show confidence before it became complicated. When we were in first grade, we didn't care if our outfits matched or if our hair was perfectly styled. And it's not because we were more confident back then, but because we just hadn't experienced the world yet. And as we grew up, ...

I once heard a quotation [snorts] that took me years to understand and that's the longest journey we take each day is the 18 inches or 45 cm that separates our heart from our mind. When I first heard that, I didn't know what it meant and I dismissed it and I figured I'm never going to pay any attention to it because I'm never going to quite understand. But when I think again, it helps me to recognize how important it is that I continue to learn from my mistakes. That distance became real the day that I made ...

[applause and cheering] [applause] Being up late at night is an unfamiliar. Not yet showered, a test the next day that hasn't been studied for. Homework due the next day, reading due in the morning, and almost immediately the mind goes to negotiation.One assignment can be done during lunch, another during community time, and time essentially gets bargained and rearranged until everything fits because it has to. These are our responsibilities. But when there's space to reflect on what truly feels meaningful, ...

[applause and cheering] [applause] Can anyone here make a good chocolate chip cookie. Not from one of those tubes of dough, you know, the kind that come like this and you could probably eat half of it before you even bake it because there's no real eggs in it, but like a real solid homemade cookie. I can't um I try I've I try every day, honestly.Um I line the ingredients up on my counter, preheat my oven, say a little prayer, and hope this time it's going to work. No, they still turn out too hard, not flat, ...

Picture this. It's 5:45 a. m.It is too dangerous. The players will never accept you. These were the words running through my mind as I sat waiting for the bus headed to the southern Bahes in Argentina.They were the final words my concerned father had told me only a few hours earlier before my planet departed. I was set to go try out at Argentina Juniors, a best-in-class soccer club that has produced legends like Diego Maradona and current stars today like Alexis Mallister from the Premier League. In that mo ...

Are you ready. What if that silence wasn't just a moment. What if it was your everyday life.Think about the last time that you listened to music. Maybe it was in the car with the windows down or in your room, headphones on, shutting everything else out. Maybe music helped you calm down, focus, or feel understood.Music is everywhere in our lives. It connects us. It evokes deep emotions and it brings us joy without us even realizing it.But for millions of people in the deaf community, music is experienced ver ...

No, not today, said the surirly armed French police officer standing just outside of the United Nations Oceans Conference in Nice. The opening plenary session was kicking off just 10 tantalizing feet away from me. I begged, I pleaded, I asked for him to just let me squeeze through, but he remained firm.Instead, he pointed a mile long circuitous route across the dock, a 30-minute detour. As I began walking, still frustrated and jetlagged from my 8-hour flight from Miami, I remember thinking, "This is ridicul ...

[cheering] [applause] [applause] In Novo Pariso, Honduras, I met a little girl named Magros. I was born and raised in Miami, yet I didn't speak any Spanish. Magros didn't speak any English, yet we became inseparable anyway.We made friendship bracelets, push each other on swings, laughed at jokes neither of us could translate. Because humanity doesn't need perfect words. It needs presence.We've all heard that iceer question. If you could have one superpower, what would it be. Some people might say flying, te ...

So before we begin, I'd just like to clarify something. We've all seen at least one horror movie in our lives, right. I mean, okay, wait, I don't trust you guys.To name a few, we have uh Nightmare on Elm Street, The Exorcist, The Conjuring, Mean Girls. It Okay, it is it wasn't that scary. So can Carly called that a horror movie.But the others, they haunt you. And okay, I see some of you guys giggling in the audience, but truth be told, Mean Girls actually scared me back in the day. And for those of you who ...