WEBVTT

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I'm Amy Walker and I'm a believaholic.

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(Audience) Hi, Amy.

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Thank you.

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I believe that you are capable
of anything you set your mind to.

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When people ask me
to teach them a new skill,

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they're really asking for me
to believe that they're capable of it.

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They want to do it.

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They just don't quite think
that they can, yet.

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And so I show them,
over and over, that it is possible.

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In small enough increments,
I help them expand their identity

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so that even though they begin by saying,

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"Oh, I'm just taking lessons,"

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gradually they'll expand their identity

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to include the title
"I'm a singer," "I'm an actor," etc.

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I did not begin this way.

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At the tender age of 14,

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I was your above-average student
with below-average confidence.

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Depressed, apologetic, and not popular.

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It wasn't until the end
of my middle-school internment,

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(Laughter)

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the eighth-grade dance,

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that all that began to change.

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I'd somehow managed to squeeze my way

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into the impenetrable circle
of popular people.

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Clearly out of my element,

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I began doing what I always did then
and looked around for someone to copy.

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But as I perused all those faces
with too much dark lipliner,

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I noticed that these popular people,
who always know what they're doing, right,

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were looking around
for someone else to follow.

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So I just closed my eyes
and said to myself,

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"Amy Frances Walker,
doesn't matter what they think.

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Music is in your blood.
You've been singing since the highchair.

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Surely, you can dance.

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You just don't realize it yet.

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So you reach into your heart,
and you feel the pulse of that music

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and let it carry your body into dance."

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And as I opened my eyes,
I noticed that they were all following me.

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Suddenly, I had the opportunity to become

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"She who knows how to dance
at social gatherings."

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(Laughter)

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It was a big deal for a 14-year-old,
grunge-era fashion casualty.

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(Laughter)

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And so we encounter a crossroads:

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The opportunity to be

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or not to be

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something we've been
longing to experience.

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I used to look at
a beautiful person and think,

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"She is so gorgeous.
I could never look like that."

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Of course, as we all know,

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the entire world is only allowed
2000 beauty points, total.

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(Laughter)

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And since Beyoncé and Juliette Binoche
are obviously 900 points each,

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I must be like a point zero-zero-two
or something, right?

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But if I can look at a rotting leaf
in a way that I see the beauty in it,

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clearly, beauty is not a substance.

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It's not a material
that only certain things are made of.

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Things like:

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"Raindrops on roses
and whiskers on kittens,

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and Julie Andrews
because we're all smitten,

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beauty is found in all manner of things,

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beauty's the way you behold how it sings."

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(Applause)

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I began to practice seeing
the abundance of beauty around me.

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The more deeply I observed
beauty singing in every form,

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the more I began to see it in myself.

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I started rewriting a bunch of old labels
I'd been carrying for a long time:

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not thin enough, not pretty enough,
not talented enough, not good enough.

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It's a challenge to break
old judgment patterns

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you've been identifying with for so long,

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often without even being aware of them.

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It can be scary.

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I've had to abandon the relative comfort

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of who I think I am

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for the possibility of whom I may become.

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It can be hard.

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It can require courage, you know.

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But as a wise fish once said,

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(Laughter)

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"Just keep swimming.

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Swimming, swimming. What do we we do?

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We swim, ha hahaha.
I thank you, Alan and Pixar."

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(Laughter) (Applause)

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Dory.

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Courage is not the absence of fear;

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it's when you just keep swimming
and sing louder than the voice of doubt.

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And so as you watch these speakers today,

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I invite you to practice seeing

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the beauty and the potential
in each one of them,

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even beyond the wonders
that they present today.

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As you offer them an opportunity to grow,

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you'll find that empowerment
reflected back to you

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because they're all here
to share what they've learned

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that you might take it
to new heights on your own path.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)