The Fear of the Unknown | Yvonne Idisi | TEDxYouth@FuntajIntlSchool
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bln7ctbMa6E Video ID: bln7ctbMa6E ============================================================ Transcriber: Carla Donelli Reviewer: klaudia solecka Is this really the end? I don't think so. For decades, the human race has tried to figure out when. When does it end? And the real answer is we don't know. The world doesn't know. So that unanswered question creates fear. Subjected to the human mind. Fear it’s a very dangerous concept. It can either make or break a person. My name is Yvonne Idisi, and I’m not here to sugarcoat it. I'm here to flip the table. Fear isn't just some shadow in your closet. It's the voice that tells you. Don't try, don't change, don't dream. But what if we flipped it? What if fear was just a challenge? We need to rise. Imagine this. A doomsday clock. Imagine a giant clock in the heart of New York City. Not counting down minutes, seconds, but counting down to humanity's potential doom. Sounds like something straight out of a sci fi movie, right? It’s called the Doomsday Clock. It was created by Gungahlin kaiden paiten, Andrew Carpenter and Adrian Boyd. Their goal to warn the world that we're on the verge of something terrifying, whether from natural disasters to man made threats. Right now it counts three years to its detonation. And do you know the crazy part? It’s not even a real clock, it’s a symbol. A sign from the smartest people on the planet, telling us we are on the verge of something terrifying. As a 16 year old girl in this current generation, the whole idea of a doomsday clock, sounds scary. People tell us we are the future and have the power to change the world. But how are we supposed to do that when the world seems close to collapse, how do we stay hopeful? When scientists, the people with all the answers, are literally saying, time’s almost up, it’s overwhelming. The climate is changing faster than we can keep up with. The ozone layer is depleting and alarming rates, and technology is advancing so fast, we don’t know whether it’s helping us or hurting us. Fear. It's an emotional response to a real or perceived situation. It’s your brain’s way of protecting you from danger. We face fears in many ways. We can face it by being patient, breathing through it, hyping yourself up. But once you acknowledge your fear, you can name it, own it, and then ask yourself, why am I scared? Then you take small steps into practicing it and facing your fears. Fears only become smaller when you face it. To me, fear doesn't have to be something colossal. It could be something small and insignificant, like the dark or spiders. To me, The Doomsday Clock scares me. Why? Let me paint you a picture. If the Doomsday Clock was meant to go off when it does, three years from now, I’d be about 20 years old. Meaning I'd never lived my life out of school. I had never visited the Empire State Building, and I’d never have a family of my own. That scares me. Do you know what else scares me? Failure. Failure is a very common fear, and I’m one of those people, who have it. I remember being at the stage of a big school debate. I was up next. I kept thinking to myself, what if I mess up? What if I mess up? It got to my turn and I did. I blanked out mid-sentence. I didn't know what to say. I wanted to disappear in that moment. Then I took a breath and I continued going, and I walked off with my head high. That was my fear. I had faced my fear. And then I realized that my fear didn't break me. It built me. So if I can face my fear, why can't you? Throughout history, humanity has overcome massive challenges by facing fear head on. The Cold War brought us to the brink of nuclear wars. Yet the ozone layer was depleted at an alarming rate. But when the world came together to ban harmful chemicals, it started to heal. Over time, facing the unknown doesn’t mean ignoring it. It means acknowledging it and using knowledge and action, as a course of weapon against it. So as terrifying as the unknown may be, maybe the best way to fight it is to deny looking away, to learn to speak up. And remember that even when the clock is ticking out we still have the power to change things and turn them around. Thank you.