How do you put 56 years of your life in 15 minutes. It's not easy. But it's a journey. It's a story that I narrate today with pride. It's the story that I've been blessed with.um to see the diversity that exists in the world to learn from that diversity and to believe that diversity is strength. Differences bring people closer together. Differences get people with different strengths to come together to create synergy and resonance.I always wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to be a teacher at the age of thre ...

[Music] My name is Azadin Hamda and I was born and raised in a small rural village just outside the city of Nablas in the West Bank, Palestine. Today I live in Winnipeg, Canada. I have a PhD in peace and conflict studies and I work as an anti-racist educator in the public school system.I tell stories of Palestine inviting the world to recognize the human face of my story. When you hear the word home, what comes to mind. For most, the concept of home is associated with comfort and belonging.A sense of calm a ...

During high school, everyone has a place where they feel most at home. Whether that be a community, a club, or a sports team. For example, there are several clubs dedicated towards people who might be musically gifted, artistically gifted, or athletically gifted.These spaces provide solace and sanctuary during a time where people are learning who they are and what they want from life. The hardest part about being honest and open about your passions during a time like high school is the social stigma and fea ...

[Applause] or raise your hand if you've ever felt like you didn't belong. Me too. I used to think belonging was like this coin before I flip it.Quantum physics tells us that it exists in what's called superp position. So it's both heads and tails simultaneously. But the moment I look, reality collapses into a single truth.For years I live suspended in my own superp position. Stuck on the edge of belonging. Not heads enough here, not tails enough there.Hovering in a place between possibilities. Until I learn ...

I want you to get together. [Music] I want you to get together. [Applause] Jaw Jaw Jin.Raise your hand if you know you don't know what I just said. Good. Now you have a small idea what is look like for a refugees who entered the US who don't speak English.Think about the stress you feel. You just flee from your homeland. You were afraid you may be killed.You can never go back. You are all alone. You are sick with the worry of your family that you never see again.And you don't understand the language. Everyt ...

[Music] What happens when the place you're from doesn't really feel like it belongs to you. And what if instead of ignoring that discomfort, you dare to ask why. I was born into a cross-cultural life.Born and raised in China, Pakistani by blood, fluent in English and struggling in Udu. It often felt like I was living in a translation. Sometimes too local to be foreign or too foreign to be local.And at the time I thought there was something wrong with that until I picked up a camera. It initially started as ...

[Music] [Applause] Hello everyone. My name is Victoria and I am from YWS Lingong. Raise your hand if you have ever felt like you didn't belong.What if I told you that exact feeling is the key to unlocking the power of change. Would you believe me. Well, the truth is being stuck in between isn't a trap, but a training ground for resilience, creativity, and belonging.Let me take you back to my first day of school in China. After getting lost, a teacher found me in the empty hallways and led me into the princi ...

This chair represents someone. Someone waiting, waiting to be seen, waiting to be heard, waiting to be loved. We walk past people like this every day.Sometimes, let's be honest, we are that person. The one on the outside looking, the one sitting at the edge of a conversation, scrolling on their phones aimlessly. We've been taught something about community.We're told, "Go out and find your people." Which people is there a website called find your people. com. There is no framework to find the right community ...

[Music] I come from everywhere, but I don't belong anywhere. As weird as it sounds, it's still true. Let me explain. Raise your hand if you have more than one nationality. Well, I have four. Yes, you heard me well. Four. It might sound like I hit the jackpot, but really it's more of a curse than a blessing. I always wondered what it meant to have a nationality. Does it represent the community we belong to? Or maybe it represents our identity. But if I have all these different nationalities, does that mean t ...

Dora Puhakka was a Speaker at TEDxEspoo Youth 2025! What does it truly mean to connect with another human being? In this TEDx Talk, Dora Puhakka invites us to reflect on one of the most universal human needs: to be seen, to be heard, and to feel that we belong. From the beginning of the Talk we are reminded that human connection is not a luxury - it is a necessity. Yet despite living in an increasingly interconnected world, many of us feel isolated, divided, and misunderstood. This Talk explores how concept ...