Far from city lights, out on my farm, the night sky shimmers with stars. The universe is made of stories, not atoms, wrote the poet Muriel Rukasa. I love stories. As a writer and environmental scientist living on a farm in the outback, I love creating worlds through words. One fascinating ancient story that is told around the globe is that of the seven stars in the Pelades constellation, often describing seven sisters fleeing from hunters. Yet, if we look to the night skies today, only six stars shine. That ...

I still remember the finish line. Dust in my teeth. Taste of victory. until the teacher said second place and the trophy went to her daughter. I was just five and I was told to remain sh quiet. I remember standing there helpless at a very early age. Life taught me world is not always fair. But with every unfair movement sparked something stronger. That day A FIGHTER WAS BORN WHO REFUSED to give up. Tomorrow is something we built. One mindset, one action, one choice at a time. I realized confidence can be tr ...

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; ...

Do you know that most women can't do a single pull-up? They jump up on this bar kicking their legs to try and gain momentum only to come down feeling like they failed. And it's funny because every single time that women come up to me talking about pull-ups, they always say the same exact thing. You say it takes me back to the national presidential fitness test we used to do in school. Remember that? The boys, they used to do the pull-ups and the girls, they were told to just hang there. And although it may ...

Happy morning everyone. Today I'll speak on the topic the art of letting go. Turning sorrow to strength.Everybody has their first pictures of whether they just learn how to walk, talk or eat a crawl. This is my first picture of when I just learned how to walk. It was 6th August early morning.My father or a baba as I call him had just come to India where we were spending our vacations at Nana Nani's house. He broke the news none of us ever wanted to hear. My mother or I is no more.Shock waves ran through my ...

than this. You're walking through life carrying a heavy backpack. At first, it's not too bad.But over the years, you start tossing in old habits, fears, outdated beliefs, and the voices of people that once told you who you should be. Eventually, that backpack gets so heavy you can't take a step forward without struggling. There was a period in my life where I thought strength meant holding it all together.I held on to every routine, commitment, every expectation, even though they did not serve me anymore. F ...

Good morning. I am Ana Ashworth and today I have one simple goal to leave you all with a question that you'll be thinking about long after this speech is over. So let's begin.Yesterday generations took revolutions took generations but today they begin with a single tweet. The pace of change is breathtaking and unstoppable. But the real question is, are we as individuals changing as fast as the world around us.It's easy to point at technology, society, and politics and say, "The world must change." But how o ...

Icarus, the boy with wings of wax who flew too close to the sun and fell. His story is usually used as a warning against ambition. And his name for centuries has written as a failure.But what most people forget is that he was also warned not to fly too close to the ocean either or the water could weigh his wings down. Too high and you risk burning. too low and you risk drowning.Can you imagine how he must have felt to have wings for the first time to feel the wind beneath you and given a choice between caut ...

friends, leaders, learners, and survivors. Look around us. This is not the world our parents lived in. This is not the world we were promised.We live in an era of relentless, unforgiving change. The ground beneath us is shifting and the rules are rewritten overnight. And in the whirlwinds of uncertainty, most of us feel frozen, trapped.We cling to what was, to what was comfortable, to a version of ourselves that's no longer sustainable. Friends, I want to be honest with all of you. For a long time, I lived ...

Can I kindly ask all the men in the room to close their eyes for the next 10 seconds? And as you do so, kindly look back to the last time you felt the most like a man. Think even deeper. When was the last time you felt the most masculine? Now open. For most of us, the last time we felt the most like a man was perhaps when we sorted the house rent without any contribution from the female gender. Aha, I see someone there. For some others, it's the last time you gave mommy money and tried to prove that you are ...