TED Talk

 Blythe has Speech and Debate this semester. She loves it! She loves her teacher, Mrs. Hanni, she loves the subject, she loves her classmates. It has been a terrific class for her. When we were looking over class choices, I said, "You should take Speech and Debate. You like to talk and argue; it will be a perfect fit." And indeed, it has been.

For the "speech" portion of the class, they studied TED Talks, and then had to prepare a TED Talk themselves. Blythe selected the topic and wrote out the whole thing before presenting to me and Kent. It was terrific! We only made one small suggestion that she add a bit more detail to one section, but otherwise, thought it was spot on.

When Blythe presented it to the class, her teacher thought it was spot on, too. Blythe got 47/50 points, the three point deduction coming because she had a hand in her pocket. Otherwise, Mrs. Hanni gave her excellent feedback and told her she did a wonderful job. It is fun to see Blythe developing. 

Here is her talk.

Most of the time, the stuff you judge most is yourself and your choices. I know for a fact that last year I judged myself a lot. I looked back on my choices and my words and I always came up with something else I could have said. Something to make people laugh, or something that makes my friends happier. Or choices. Something I could have done better for a better grade or something I could have done so I didn’t get in as many fights as I did. But I realized that self love is important. It makes others feel drawn to you. There is an online site I use called Rolepages. It's a Roleplaying site and I use it often. However whenever I tell somebody I am close to what my real age is, they’re always surprised that I'm 12. And when I ask why I usually get the same answer. “Oh you're just so confident”. My self love and respect makes me believe in who I am. I almost never back down from dares, and I do a lot of things most people would have to be talked into doing. I am definitely not perfect. And I never will be. However a lot of people think they need to be perfect to be loved. This is not true. Now i’m going to share some examples of ways you can love and accept yourself:

Forgive Yourself For Your Mistakes 

Reflecting on your mistakes can help you to forgive and forget. If you can look back at some poor choices you may have made, and forgive yourself, you can start to move on and forget about the past. Loving yourself despite any mistakes you made in the past is great for your self-worth.

Start a Journal

If you can write down your thoughts and feelings, you can go back at a later date and see how you coped with certain situations.

This is also a positive way for you to get rid of any negative experiences and feelings, helping you to focus on the good things.

Saying No To Others

Sometimes we do too much for people, we like to please other people, so we tend to stretch ourselves too thin and commit to everything we can. It's alright to say no sometimes!

Pursue New Interests

It’s great to try something new that you have wanted to try for a while, or have been too scared to do. For me, I was scared to speak in front of people! But I tried it! 

Challenging Yourself

If you can challenge yourself, you will also be getting to know yourself and what you are capable of.

Give Yourself A Break

Try and put aside 30 minutes of your time, to completely relax. Having a break from the chaos of life is a great way to love and care for yourself. Nobody is perfect and you can’t expect yourself to be either

Work On Your Self-Trust

A great way to show yourself self-love is to trust yourself and your own instincts.

You are most likely going to know what is best for you, and self-trust is a step to self-love.

Take Care Of Yourself

This one probably seems obvious, but taking care of yourself plays a big part in learning how to love yourself, and a lot of people do not do it. If you take care of yourself, you will be the best version of yourself. Take a walk by yourself or sleep earlier than some days. And most importantly, don’t stress out too much!

I know that as I worked on my self love I used a lot of these, even without realizing it. I used to struggle a lot with self respect. If you didn’t know, I’m adopted. It's a huge part of my life. And it comes with many ups and downs. When I struggled to love myself little voices of doubt kept me from seeing how amazing I truly am. I would think, “I’m not enough” or “I am not worthy of these people in my life” or “My birth parents didn’t want me” when in reality, none of those things are true. Everybody in the world deserves self love. And that includes you. The End.