Youssef ElBanna Grade 12 English

Angela Lee Duckworth talks about the common characteristic in people who stay at their jobs, and sports, win in competitions, do not drop out, etc. After very long research and cooperation with companies, she learned that most people who end up staying in their place and not giving up are people with grit.  What is grit? Grit can be thought of as the strength and power of a person to not give up, and to fight for the long run. Determination. It is to be determined to win, to reach your goal. And to have that does not mean to have a love for whatever you are doing, but to be resilient and stand back up when you fail, in addition to not giving up. 

As Drew Dudley explained in this TedTalk, we can understand the true and actual meaning of leadership, which is misunderstood in our society nowadays. Many people also believe they cannot be leaders that easily and that leadership needs "a level of arrogance and cockiness that we are not comfortable with." However, leadership is not that complicated nor that hard to do, it can be as easy and as simple as giving someone a lollipop and telling a silly joke. This is Drew's explanation of leadership. Drew was told a story by a student in university on his last day working there, where she explained to him how much important he was to her even though he wasn't sure who that girl was and when he ever communicated with her. Turns out that this girl was extremely hesitant about the university and was about to leave and go back home with her parents until she saw Dudley. He was carrying a bucket full of lollipops and giving them to each one in the line, and he stopped when it ...

  The danger of a single sided story, this was the main topic and the title of the Ted Talk about today’s blog. The danger of a single story was presented by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who talked about how she always read single sided stories when she was young and that story stayed in her head for a long time until she was introduced to the other side and the true side of the story, which she needed time to believe and realize, exactly like the Allegory of the Cave, where the prisoner needed time to adapt to the light, which represented the truth and the knowledge. This is the danger of a single story, false or incomplete ideas and thoughts that stay with us for a long time until we see the actual story with our own eyes, not told by anyone. The problem in our society nowadays is that everyone enjoys adding their own touch to a story, adding or leaving out critical information to spice it up in their own way. Therefore, a new story is created, that is completely different than the a...

     Brené Brown talked about many very important and relatable topics in her Ted Talk, these topics all revolve around VULNERABILITY. What is vulnerability? As Brené said in her Ted Talk, vulnerability is what makes anyone imperfect, ironically all vulnerable characteristics that a person has made them the most perfect person ever. Without accepting your vulnerabilities, you will never be a complete person or as she explained it, “whole-hearted,” during her research, Brené talked to a couple of people who she believed were wholehearted and she realized that the only thing in common between them is that they all have the courage to talk about their vulnerabilities and not hide them, they have the courage to be imperfect. This gets her to her next point and that is self-love and compassion because without having compassion for ourselves, we cannot have compassion for others. People see their vulnerabilities as something they should be ashamed of and often try to hide them ...