Finding the Champion Inside of You | Arthur Mitchell | TEDxUNCCharlotte
The speaker, who experienced severe visual impairment due to Keratoconus, posits that perseverance—the "champion inside"—is crucial for overcoming profound personal struggles. She argues that one's true essence remains unaffected by physical disability, as evidenced by her journey from early childhood blindness and bullying to advocating for others. The ultimate call to action is to internalize one's inherent strength and continue evolving despite external obstacles. ## Theses & Positions - Perseverance is key to reaching any "next level," whether it's winning a title or overcoming life's adversity. - The true self is resilient and unaffected by physical disabilities, appearance, or external rejection. - People must be taught to embrace their current reality—"the quick[ker] you accept who you are," the better the journey. - External hardships and disabilities are often assigned a "purpose" or are an "assignment" that forces the individual to develop inner strength. - The process of adaptation, exemplified by making physical adjustments, is necessary for improvement. ## Concepts & Definitions - **Keratoconus** — A rare eye disease where the cornea (the clear front part of the eye) becomes progressively thinner and bulges outward, causing vision blurriness. - **Champion** — An internalized drive or spirit representing the will to persevere through difficulty. - **"The champion inside of you"** — The intrinsic, persistent inner spirit that drives one to fight and keep going. ## Mechanisms & Processes - **The "Fighting" Process:** Overcoming challenges by channeling struggle, anger, and resentment into active resistance and perseverance. - **Adaptation/Making Adjustments:** The necessity of changing behavior or method (e.g., learning to play football despite vision issues) to improve and progress. - **The Ring Analogy:** Understanding that rest is temporary; one must "sit in the cup and get back up" after setbacks to continue the fight. - **Diagnosis/Treatment:** Receiving a diagnosis (Keratoconus) and undergoing multiple surgeries (up to seven) to attempt returning to "normal." ## Timeline & Sequence - **Age Six:** First signs of vision blurriness noticed moving from home to school; unable to see the board clearly. - **Early Elementary School:** Difficulty in understanding what was wrong with her vision, leading to confusion and lack of explanation. - **Middle School:** Onset of bullying, rejection, and loneliness due to her condition being rare and poorly understood by peers. - **High School:** Increased attention and scrutiny from peers regarding her vision and technology use. - **Post-High School:** Researching the condition and discovering the corneal transplant procedure. - **Later Life:** Becoming an advocate to teach others the "purpose" behind their struggles. ## Named Entities - **Mr. Mitchell** — Teacher who called out the speaker's vision issue in the classroom. - **John Hawker** — Person who stated Keratoconus is a rare disease in America, limited to only three other people at the time. - **American** — Geographic context regarding the rarity of the disease. - **General** — Person who spoke the quote cited at the end regarding change. ## Numbers & Data - Age of initial vision symptoms: **Six**. - Number of other people with the disease (at that time): **Three**. - Number of alleged surgeries: **Seven**. - Age of early struggles: **Six** (for the classroom incident). ## Examples & Cases - **Kindergarten/Early School Incident:** Being called out in class by Mr. Mitchell because her vision was blurry; initial explanation difficulty. - **The Eye Doctor Visit:** Undergoing dilation, looking at ABCs, and being diagnosed with Keratoconus. - **The Sports/Friendship Struggle:** Being excluded or ridiculed in middle school for her visual disability (e.g., inability to play on sports teams, difficulty with basic peer interaction). - **Corneal Transplant:** The procedure where a surgeon removes the cornea and replaces it with a deceased corneal graft to improve vision. - **The Football Attempt:** Trying to fit a small seventh-grade football helmet over her glasses, causing everything to fog, which led to advice on making adjustments. ## Tools, Tech & Products - **Glasses/Eyewear** — The primary physical marker and focus of the disability. - **Cornel transplant procedure** — The specialized surgery utilizing a deceased corneal tissue to restore sight. - **Football helmet** — The object used in the seventh-grade analogy to demonstrate the necessity of adjustments. ## Counterarguments & Caveats - The belief that the issue could be cured through a "prop procedure or solution," which led the speaker to research transplants. - Initial struggles suggesting that the condition was inherently devastating, necessitating a desire to be "normal again." ## Conclusions & Recommendations - The disability does not dictate one's inherent ability to be great or successful. - Those experiencing hardship should use their journey to educate others on finding purpose through adversity. - To improve, one must acknowledge the struggle and keep fighting, understanding that "things to improve you've got to improve." - Before leaving the "process," one must accept who they are, as self-acceptance improves the journey. ## Implications & Consequences - **Vision as Metaphor:** The physical inability to see clearly becomes a metaphor for the inability to see one's own potential or the world clearly. - **The Path Forward:** The purpose of enduring hardship is to prove that one's internal strength (the champion) remains intact, allowing one to contribute to the well-being of others (e.g., dealing with depression, anxiety, bullying). ## Verbatim Moments - *"when thinking over a champion think about perseverance active activities get to the next level doing different things you know to get the title at the end."* - *"I realized at an urgent age at age six so i never forget it guys i was getting ready for school..."* - *"she called my name mr mitchell can you see what's in the back on the board no ma'am i can't see nothing on the board because my vision is blurry."* - *"I was diagnosed with the eye disease called keratoconus and what cancer coroners is the oddities how your eyes oval am i like a football pressing to my pupil causing my visually blurry"* - *"there's a champion inside of you so i put the gloves on i start the fight"* - *"I want to be normal again so i said okay lord and behold they know how seven eye surgeries you have seven of them cause each one of the tissue within it and they broke"* - *"i'm going to turn your pain into your purpose i'm going to use what you went through for the last 20 some years to show people that your disability doesn't affect your ability"* - *"the quick[ker] you accept who you are guys the better your journey would be the better process to go"* - *"if you want it bad enough you can make the adjustments cause not here to hurt you but make you better in the long run"* - *"you just know who you want accepted i thought who i tell them gotta make their adjustments"* - *"When things get better it's got to get better but things to improve you've got to improve"*