The Stigma of Escapism

[Music]

when the source of your lifelong passion

stems from an idea looked down on by

almost everyone around you

it can get tough to explain yourself you

feel invalidated

like your passion shouldn’t be what you

succeed with because of its

misunderstood definition

but what most people tend to not know is

the separation between the good and the

bad

i’m a living example of the good and i

have my story to prove it

when i was around five years old my

parents were constantly fighting

it’s always a rough thing to see

something in front of you fall apart so

seamlessly but at an age where you

believe you could have done something

it was easily one of the lowest points

of my life

my situation wasn’t anything i could act

upon including the financial turmoil of

having only

one wallet rather than two that set my

family into a homeless shelter

the first christmas i remember ever was

in those walls

and my journey began when i got my first

notebook from under the christmas tree

before school i was a social hermit i

didn’t even form words until i was three

and when i did i would hardly use them

my source of expressing myself

came from my immediate interest in

drawing it was the easiest way to

explain myself that i couldn’t with

normal words

through my toddlerhood i drew almost

every single day

and it didn’t stop there elementary

school was harsh on me

no one really understood me in my quiet

voice and most didn’t bother trying to

understand me through my drawings

even then no matter what names i got

called how much dirt i got kicked in my

face or

how many pages of mine were ripped

straight from their bindings for the fun

of it

i kept drawing it was the only thing

i had all to myself

when middle school came around i decided

to switch districts

i couldn’t imagine myself another day

with the kids i grew up with

so i transferred myself into a school

which i still attend today

when i first got there i immediately

found my group and slowly gained a

personality from the ability to

communicate with what i did best

even then school transfers are never an

easy transition

no matter how much more of an

environment was for me

but i coped and i coped with art

this constant attention to this hobby is

a clear example of escapism

the stigma of my past this distraction

from the surroundings around me allowed

me to cope to this trauma i was going

through

in such a casual way most people can

hardly see any long-term inflictions of

everything i had to go through but

escapism is a touchy subject

the main reason it’s looked down on is

the idea that there’s only one variant

of it

which is the one that involves the

laziness and carelessness for situations

you can solve

i’m living proof that this is not the

case all the time

and that the word can be placed into two

versions of itself

the good and the bad the most

referenced variant i see is the bad when

people use escapism to distract

themselves from the tasks you can fix

simple tasks like chores and work are

responsibilities many do have control

over

yet choose not to work on it by fixing

it or distracting themselves with

something else

but then there’s the good it’s the act

of distracting yourself from problems

that you have little to no control over

my example consists of my drawing and

animation but

that’s just my passion one of the

largest examples of this is the

quarantine we all had to go through in

march of 2020.

all those hobbies people started to pick

up as the months flew by

was escapism you were distracting

yourself from the global pandemic no one

could really stop by themselves at any

given moment

talking about my passion my best ideas

have stemmed from the escapism i use to

get away from the uncontrollable issues

i’ve had in my past

with an example i’d like to introduce

naomi accoloid

a cool cybernetic political figure

that’s practically aged with me since

the beginning her character as well as a

story and environment

has changed as i’ve grown to understand

just why i made her the way she is today

she’s a social figure to so many others

yet hides away from the impossibles by

secluding her town from the problems she

knows

they would definitely go out trying to

fix

because of that she has a thriving city

to run and i can’t help but speculate

some sort of that connection

has some to my own story this idea of

escapism

helped me get to where i am now not only

am i this fun little character

explaining myself to this ted talk but

i’m also a bundle of surprises

in the working field of art i’ve

recently started to work on character

designs for tv shows appeared as a guest

on podcasts to interview people in the

industry

started gaining a source of income for

my illustrations

i’ve been recognized by certain idols

and celebrities

grown my own community of fans who enjoy

watching my individual projects and

works

and i seem to be the first ted talker to

independently write

and animate my own message

and i give that credit to the start of

it all

that tiny little gift at the bottom of

the christmas tree

that i got at the lowest point of my

life made the clay for me to mold myself

into

well me escapism helped me through

everything

and no matter how much i went through in

my life i always had a pencil and a

piece of paper to tell my story

this one the story of my life the story

of my escapism

and the story of me thank you

you