What does YOLO actually mean
[Music]
so
welcome to my ted talk my name is sari
ida and i’m here today to talk about the
yolo mentality
but before you jump to any assumptions
please let me elaborate on
why more people should use the yolo
mentality in their regular day-to-day
lifestyles
i know you might be thinking well why
should i use my important time
on this ted talk about some naive
mentality when i could be using my time
wisely
however i’m here today to explain what
the acronym yolo actually means
it’s pretty self-explanatory as you all
may know
yolo stands for you only live once
the term yolo has had such a huge impact
on who i am
and yes sometimes it did lead me to make
some
embarrassing mistakes but without this
mentality
i would not be standing here today and
keep in mind i’m not talking about the
reckless yolo mentality which functions
to justify
impulsive and irresponsible behavior
rather i’m here today
to spread the positive and healthy
meaning of the yolo mentality
i will be talking about how i overcame
the notorious shy kid
and the difficulties associated with
this profile
through my own story picture this
elementary school me not a word to my
teachers
classmates and friends
i was that one kid in class who would
never speak
and if i did my teacher would put their
hand on their ear and go speak up
because of how quiet i was i’d only talk
if i got called on
and when i was younger i barely had any
friends
and when i say that i mean it would no
exaggeration
my teachers had to tell my classmates to
try talking to me
and some of them had to convince my own
classmates
that i’m not weird and i’m just shy
however when i did get to know people i
loved it
i realized how much i love the human
connection
however something inside of me stopped
me from doing this and
i didn’t know what it was because
at home i wasn’t quiet at all in fact
my mom would even tell me to use my
inside voices
how ironic i only use my voice when i’m
not supposed to
i moved to scarsdale new york in the
second grade
i made some friends but when i came back
to japan in the fifth grade
i was still quiet and my teachers
had to do that thing again to force my
friends to be nice to me
and to be honest at that point i was
pretty used to it
i mean it was a me problem that others
tried to fix
so to graduate elementary school we had
to do
this thing called the fifth grade fifth
grade exhibition
and that was a nightmare the exhibition
was a huge end of the year event where
classmates would pair up
to present a global issue
my friends were grouped together without
me and i was all alone
with two boys who i had barely talked to
for me this was almost a death sentence
one i had to communicate with people who
i’m not close to
two i had to present it from the school
teachers
and parents and three i had to do
my least favorite things putting myself
out there and being vulnerable
so a month passes and it’s the day of
the exhibition
surprise i was my shy and awkward self
refused to talk and hid in the bathroom
and i was just wishing that this
miserable day would end already
i ultimately ended up doing my
presentation with my
group but my eyes were focused on the
ground the whole entire time
i doubt the audience even heard half of
the things i was saying considering the
fact that i was mumbling into the mic
i feel horrible for my group members as
my poor presentation and communication
skills would
also reflect on their grade for this
major project
transitioning to a few years later i
transferred to a new school
a japanese school
where i lunch with my homeroom teacher
for the first few months
it’s okay you guys can laugh still i
avoided
all interactions that required talking
for example
even at the supermarket when they asked
if i needed a plastic bag
i would just stand there and nod
i hated that i cared so much about how i
would come across to other people
and what other people might think of me
i hated how my negativity occupied
many of my thoughts and made it
difficult for me to communicate with
i hated the way i was being so weak for
being for not being able to do the
normal things
that other people can do so
as any teenager would do i went online
to search for what is wrong with me
do i have social anxiety or is this just
my personality
all of these thoughts and questions
dominated my headspace
and my neck and my mentality was very
weak and negative
overall now that i think about it
this time in my life was probably when i
hit rock bottom
but you know what that means it can only
go up from there
i knew how much i loved talking to
people who i was comfortable with
the only obstacle that was stopping me
from this was me being shy and awkward
this was when i realized that i had to
make a change
though it took me about 13 years to
realize i began looking for ways to
improve myself
while also acknowledging the fact that
it wouldn’t be easy
this was when i thought of the yolo
mentality
i recognize that my shyness has come
from self-consciousness
negative self-preoccupation low
self-esteem
and fear of judgment i also noticed that
i often made
unrealistic social comparisons hitting
myself against
the most vibrant or outgoing individuals
and telling myself that i could never be
one of them
i mean i still do this at times and i’m
still working on it
but i realized that i have to believe in
myself and that i only live once
so i need to do what i have to and want
to do
even if it’s something as small as like
telling the person in front of you that
they’ve dropped something or even saying
hi to someone in the hallways
freshman year was when my debate journey
began i continued debate
all through 9th 10th and 11th grade
and even won a speaker ward i also
entered the speech contest
twice and was awarded the all-star award
both times
on top of that i was an emcee at csun’s
annual talent show and during the summer
i also volunteered at a summer camp
which forced me to go outside my comfort
zone i’m also in
the student council and now i’m here
doing a ted talk
i also want to mention that i’m proud of
these accomplishments
but i’m also proud of the ones that
nobody really talks about
after gaining this mentality i was able
to make friends
i joined multiple clubs actively
participated in class
talk to teachers when i need help and
gained
the ability to talk to anyone without
being afraid
public speaking has now become my
passion
and it’s something that i’m very
comfortable with
many say that public speaking is a skill
that you were born with
but i think my case disproves this myth
i was able to develop these skills as
you can see from my rocky past
i certainly was not born with public
speaking skills
but because of my efforts and growth i’m
here today
doing a ted talk i would have never
dreamed of such a thing
going back to my first question i asked
in the very beginning
what does yolo mentality mean to me
i believe that the yolo mentality is a
reminder to do what i
what i really want to do because i only
live once
although some interpret it in a bad way
i would like to
redefine what it is and should be
accepted for many people use the yolo
mentality
as an excuse to slack off live
irresponsibly and recklessly
but i don’t see this as a yolo mentality
i think yolo mentality means
living your life to the fullest and
truly making each day count
not wasting your life caring about your
life
your mind and your heart because in the
end
you’re the only one you’ll have think
about it
you’re the only one who will stick by
your side forever so you have to treat
yourself
in the best way you can and
be the best person you can be it’s about
not caring about what others thinks
because who cares also people are so
caught up in their own lives
too worried about other concerns to give
a crap about something
you might be completely caught up in
that’s what yolo mentality means to me
in the end it’s just a short and casual
way of summarizing everything i just
said so i hope you
take my definition of yola mentality and
try incorporating it into your daily
life
even in the smallest ways whether this
means through that performance you’re
very nervous about
or even getting up in the morning for
that run you’re dreading
this yola mentality will help you in
many aspects of your life
and finally trust me it’s something that
i’m still struggling with
today i’m up here talking about the yolo
mentality but i’m fully aware
that i have not mastered it some days i
feel transported back to my elementary
school mentality
and even before today i self-doubt
myself multiple times
thinking maybe i should just back out of
this but this is also one step towards
my goal
i encourage you to find yourselves the
activity that pushes you to your fullest
potential
like what public speaking did for me
this mentality has taken me so far
and i think i’ve come a long way from
those painful experiences
in elementary school and those awkward
encounters in
middle school and so not to be cliche
but live your life to the fullest and
become the main character to your own
story
so now i will end my ted talk with one
question
how could you be the main character to
your own story with the yolo mentality
thank you for listening to my tech talk
[Music]