Blog 5

Aimee Mullins: The opportunity of adversity

1. What are your take-aways from this video?

Adversity is something to be celebrated, not avoided.  Everyone has adversity in their life no matter their situation, therefore, it is how I deal with it that distinguishes who I am.  Although Aimee Mullins is not trying to diminish others' struggles, she is making the point that there can always be positives that come from adversity, the real test is finding them.  What made her Ted Talk so profound is that she is someone who has been forced to face adversity her whole life, and yet she has found a way to be more influential and successful with her adversity than she would be able to without her struggles.2. What are the speaker's effective speaking techniques?

She was very organized in the way she presented the data.  Also, she used wonderful example to support her point and many of the examples were what really drove her point through.  3. What is his/her presentation style?

Unlike other presenters like Dan Pink, she allowed time for people to process what was being said.  Also, it was obvious by the tone of her voice that she was speaking about something that she was passionate about.  It made her message so much more powerful.4. What matters from this video? How does it connect to you personally? To education? To the world?

I was really able to connect to this personally because I have often thought of what positives can come out of any kind of adversity.  Earlier this year,  I wrote a paper about how everyone has their "cross to bear."  This Ted Talk made that same point that because everyone will run into adversity, it's all about how you deal with it.  Also, this made me think of Bethany Hamilton, the author of Soul Surfer.  She had her arm bitten off by a shark and despite that major obstacle, she, like Aimee Mullins has found a way to do more good with adversity than she might otherwise be able to without adversity.  

Also, when she spoke about the power of how much confidence other people can give you by just taking away discouraging labels, it reminded me of my sentence that I wrote for English; she challenged others to have confidence in their ability.  The study she mentioned about the A students who were told they were D students and the D students who were told they were A students directly related to my sentence.  Often times performance can be affected just based on how others view your potential.