WEBVTT

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When I was in the 6th grade, 
my friends and I,

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at such a pivotal moment in our lives,
realized how bored we were.

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There was a lack of excitement
in our adventures,

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we had found that we had done everything
we could possibly think of

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to fill in an empty space of time.

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We'd have sleepovers, play video games,

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watch movies, 
walk around the neighborhood,

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and even after all of this,
we were still bored.

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And the worst part about this

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was that we knew that other kids 
felt the same thing, too.

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So after talking and discussing 
amongst ourselves,

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we realized that as much as we try
to fix our boredom,

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we weren't doing anything
substantial about it.

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That's why we decided
that we wanted to make people laugh.

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We wanted to make funny videos
that joked about things

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that no one really joked about.

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We wanted to joke about our quirky,
quiet town of Alton, Texas.

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Now, I'd love to tell you that I'm here

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to share that my videos 
have millions of views

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and that I've sold tons of merchandise
worldwide,

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but unfortunately, 
like many of the ideas that we have,

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we never made our videos,
our idea, a reality.

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I know right now there's probably
at least one of you who's like,

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"Man, this guy's depressing.
Is he going to keep talking like this?"

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But there's a reason.

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As time went on, more and more of us
left the group

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until eventually all of us left the group.

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All of us, except for one.

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My friend couldn't let go of his idea,

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so after we all left in the 6th grade,
he decided to make a team.

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Members would come in,
and leave out, fluctuate,

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he learned how to use complex
computer software

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and he learned how to work with cameras.

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He would make videos on drama,
comedy, things here and there,

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and I didn't know any of this

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because I hadn't seen or talked to him
in six years.

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My friend, the one who never gave up
on his idea,

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has now launched his own 
videography company.

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Like him and the rest of the world,
we all have tons of ideas every day.

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And there was something different
about him

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because six years ago, my group
of friends and I,

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we all had the same idea,

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but he was the only one
who actually saw it through.

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How many of you ever feel
a drive inside of you

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that tells you "Take a chance.
What if? Why not?"

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For many of us, while we're
sitting down at work,

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eating lunch 
or waiting to drift off to sleep,

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we get a sense of that feeling,
that drive that we had.

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And then, after a few minutes 
of reminiscing,

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we continue doing what we're doing.

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For some of us, that feeling
comes around often.

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It makes us remember how we always
wanted to start our own band,

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take a road trip with our friends,

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or even something small
like clean up the trash in our local park.

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And it sucks because the thing that you
remember the most out of everything

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is the fact that you didn't do it.

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My friends and I, while we were in
the process of making these videos,

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we had so many opportunities
to get something done.

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I can remember how many times

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an adult came up to us
and told us,

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"Hey, I actually might know some things,"

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a kid would come and tell us,
"I know how to edit videos,"

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or even amongst ourselves,
we would tell each other,

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"You can come over to my house
we'll work on it."

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All opportunities that we never
actually took.

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As time went on, I realized that I had
to stop giving up my ideas.

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Years and years went by,
and we never met up

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I never had the opportunity 
to explore that idea.

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I had many ideas each day,
but they would all pass by,

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until eventually, I came upon an idea
that I couldn't afford to let go of,

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an idea that I couldn't afford to regret.

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That idea was 
the South Texas Ideas Festival, STXI.

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I come from a place where typically
youth are not encouraged to do better.

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They are discouraged.

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They feel that they can't do the things
that many other people can do,

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and this was a problem because
we didn't want this to happen anymore,

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we didn't want people to feel
like they needed to leave our home

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to do something better.

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Our festival was student-led.

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With a team of high school students,

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we put on a festival that hosted 
300 students from across our region.

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And it was great, we received a ton
of commendations for it.

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And I know it sounds like 
an overnight success story,

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but it really wasn't,

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and one of the main questions
that people would ask us was,

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"Where did you get the drive to do this?"

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When I was a little kid, I learned a lot
from what was going on around me.

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I came from a home where
the only way to make a living

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was to pick up plastic bottles and cans
and sell them to processing plants.

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My first real job was helping
a woman set up her booth at a flea market

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from seven in the morning
to three in the afternoon for $20.

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My neighbor's son learned how to cut hair
when he was eight years old

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because it was the only way
he and his family could afford a haircut.

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At such a momentous time in my life,
I thought that I was limited,

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that my community was limited,
my neighborhood was limited,

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all because of our circumstances.

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And then came my crazy grandpa.

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I went home and one day he was watching TV
and he told me,

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"Michael, look. I want this."

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Not the horse, the pole.

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It's a horse patience pole. It basically 
teaches a horse to be patient.

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And he told me, "I want this,"

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and I asked him, "How are you going to
afford it when you don't have the money?"

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And he said, "I'll find a way."

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So I forgot about it, 
I was walking around the house,

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And during that time, he left and he got
a wheelchair from I have no idea where

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and giant metal pole 
from I have no idea where,

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and when I got back home,

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I went into the backyard 
and this is what I saw.

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My crazy grandpa had cut
the wheelchair in half,

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attached it to the top of the pole,
stood it upright,

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and tied the horse to it.

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And in just three days, we not only
taught the horse how to stand still,

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we taught it how to run in circles.

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And I remember when I saw this,
my mind was blown away

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because I had never seen someone

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take that initiative to do something 
despite the odds.

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And thinking about it now that I'm older,

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I realize that I'm not that impressed
in the actual pole

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because at the end of the day,
its just a pole.

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I was more impressed in the fact
that my grandpa went out and did it.

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He didn't let resources get in 
the way of his idea.

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He didn't find a reason not to do it.

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He didn't choose to experience regret.

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If you feel that idea, that tug,

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then I'm telling you 
do what my grandpa did

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because that same drive that he had

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is what made 
the South Texas Ideas Festival possible.

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It was a team of high school students,
we had no idea what we were doing.

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We just knew that we wanted
to present a big festival

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to the people of our community
to show them everything we got.

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If you feel like an idea 
is worth something,

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be it yours or someone else's,

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if you feel that an idea is worth time
constraints, rejections, and failures,

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then let me give you a piece of advice:

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Stop what you're doing,

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put down your phone,

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pause the TV show that you're watching,

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hold off on that nap 
for five more minutes,

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and think.

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You're bored, right?

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Well now is the perfect opportunity
for you to take that road trip,

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the perfect opportunity
for you to start that band,

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the perfect opportunity
to clean up some trash.

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Now, the next time that you're bored,
I beg of you, I implore you,

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to get excited

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because you might just be on to
you next best idea.

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Thank you.