1.
Hello everyone. I'm Sam and I just turned 17. A few years ago before my freshman year in High School, I wanted to play snare drum in the Foxboro High School Marching Band, and it was a dream that I just had to accomplish. But each snare drum and harness weighed about 40 pounds each, and I have a disease called Progeria. So just to give you an idea, I weigh only about 50 pounds. So logistically, I really couldn't carry a regular-sized snare drum, and because of this, the band director assigned me to play pit percussion during the halftime show. Now, pit percussion was fun. It involved some really cool auxiliary percussion instruments like the bongos, timpani, and timbales, and cowbell. So it was fun, but it involved no marching, and I was just so devastated. However, nothing was going to stop me from playing snare drum with the marching band in the halftime show. So my family and I worked with an engineer to design a snare drum harness that would be lighter and easier for me to carry. So after continuous work, we made a snare drum apparatus that weighs only about 6 pounds. (Applause) I just want to give you some more information about Progeria. It affects only about 350 kids today worldwide. So it's pretty rare, and the effects of Progeria include tight skin, lack of weight gain, stunted growth, and heart disease. Last year, my Mom and her team of scientists published the first successful Progeria Treatment Study, and because of this, I was interviewed on NPR, and John Hamilton asked me the question: "What is the most important thing that people should know about you?" And my answer was simply that I have a very happy life. (Applause) So even though there are many obstacles in my life, with a lot of them being created by Progeria, I don't want people to feel bad for me. I don't think about these obstacles all the time, and I'm able to overcome most of them anyway. So I’m here today to share with you my philosophy for a happy life. So for me, there are 3 aspects to this philosophy. So this is a quote from the famous Ferris Bueller. The first aspect to my philosophy is that I’m okay with what I ultimately can’t do because there is so much I can do. Now, people sometimes ask me questions like, "Isn’t it hard living with Progeria?" or "What daily challenges of Progeria do you face?" And I’d like to say that even though I have Progeria, most of my time is spent thinking about things that have nothing to do with Progeria at all. Now, this doesn’t mean that I ignore the negative aspects of these obstacles. When I can’t do something like run a long distance or go on an intense roller coaster, I know what I’m missing out on. But instead, I choose to focus on the activities that I can do through things that I’m passionate about, like scouting, or music, or comic books, or any of my favorite Boston sports teams. Yeah, so -- (Laughter) However, sometimes I need to find a different way to do something by making adjustments, and I want to put those things in the "can do" category. Kind of like you saw with the drum earlier. So here’s a clip with me playing Spider-Man with the Foxboro High School Marching Band at halftime a couple of years ago. (Video) ♫ Spider-Man theme song ♫ (Applause) Thank you. All right, all right, so -- That was pretty cool, and so I was able to accomplish my dream of playing snare drum with the marching band, as I believe I can do for all of my dreams. So hopefully, you can accomplish your dreams as well, with this outlook. The next aspect to my philosophy is that I surround myself with people I want to be with, people of high quality. I’m extremely lucky to have an amazing family who have always supported me throughout my entire life. And I’m also really fortunate to have a really close group of friends at school. Now, we’re kind of goofy, a lot of us are band geeks, but we really enjoy each other’s company, and we help each other out when we need to. We see each other for who we are on the inside. So this is us goofing off a little bit. So, we’re juniors in High School now, and we can now mentor younger band members as a single collective unit. What I love about being in a group like the band is that the music that we make together is true, is genuine, and it supersedes Progeria. So I don’t have to worry about that when I’m feeling so good about making music. But even having made a documentary, going on TV a couple of times, I feel like I’m at my highest point when I’m with the people that surround me every day. They provide the real positive influences in my life, as I hope I can provide a positive influence in theirs as well. (Applause) Thank you. So the bottom line here is that I hope you appreciate and love your family, love your friends, for you guys, love you, Bro’s, and acknowledge your mentors and your community because they are a very real aspect of everyday life, they can make a truly significant positive impact. The third aspect to the philosophy is Keep moving forward. Here’s a quote by a man you may know named Walt Disney, and it’s one of my favorite quotes. I always try to have something to look forward to. Something to strive for to make my life richer. It doesn’t have to be big. It could be anything from looking forward to the next comic book to come out, or going on a large family vacation, or hanging out with my friends, to going to the next High School football game. However, all of these things keep me focused and know that there’s a bright future ahead, and may get me through some difficult times that I may be having. Now, this mentality includes staying in a forward-thinking state of mind. I try hard not to waste energy feeling badly for myself because when I do, I get stuck in a paradox where there’s no room for any happiness or any other emotion. Now, it’s not that I ignore when I’m feeling badly, I kind of accept it, I let it in, so that I can acknowledge it, and do what I need to do to move past it. When I was younger, I wanted to be an engineer. I wanted to be an inventor who would catapult the world into a better future. Maybe this came from my love of Legos and the freedom of expression that I felt when I was building with them. And this was also derived from my family and my mentors, who always make me feel whole and good about myself. Now, today, my ambitions have changed a little bit, I’d like to go into the field of Biology, maybe cell biology, or genetics, or biochemistry, or really anything. This is a friend of mine who I look up to, Francis Collins, the director of the NIH, and this is us at TEDMED last year, chatting away. I feel that no matter what I choose to become, I believe that I can change the world. And as I’m striving to change the world, I will be happy. About four years ago, HBO began to film a documentary about my family and me called “Life According to Sam”. That was a pretty great experience, but it was also four years ago. And like anyone, my views on many things have changed, and hopefully matured, like my potential career choice. However, some things have stayed the same throughout that time. Like my mentality and philosophy towards life. So I would like to show you a clip of my younger self from the film that I feel embodies that philosophy. (Video) I know more about it genetically. So it’s less of an embodiment now. It used to be like this thing that prevents me from doing all this stuff that causes other kids to die, that causes everybody to be stressed, and now it’s a protein that is abnormal, that weakens the structure of cells. So, and it takes a burden off of me because now I don’t have to think about Progeria as an entity. Okay, pretty good, huh? (Applause) Thank you. So as you can see, I’ve been thinking this way for many years. But I’d never really had to apply all of these aspects of my philosophy to the test at one time until last January. I was pretty sick, I had a chest cold, and I was in the hospital for a few days, and I was secluded from all of the aspects of my life that I felt made me me, that kind of gave me my identity. But knowing that I was going to get better, and looking forward to a time that I would feel good again helped me to keep moving forward. And sometimes I had to be brave, and it wasn’t always easy. Sometimes I faltered, I had bad days, but I realized that being brave isn’t supposed to be easy. And for me, I feel it’s the key way to keep moving forward. So all in all, I don’t waste energy feeling bad for myself. I surround myself with people that I want to be with, and I keep moving forward. So with this philosophy, I hope that all of you, regardless of your obstacles, can have a very happy life as well. Oh, wait, hang on a second, one more piece of advice –- (Laughter) Never miss a party if you can help it. My school’s homecoming dance is tomorrow night, and I will be there. Thank you very much. (Applause)
2.
Hi. I've got a question for you: how many people here would say they can draw? (Laughter) I think we've got about one or two percent of the hands going up, and it's interesting, isn't it? It's a little bit like people think of spelling or singing. They think, "You can either do it or you can't." But I think you can. Because when people say they can't draw, I think it's more to do with beliefs rather than talent and ability. So I think when you say you can't draw, that's just an illusion, and today I'd like to prove that to you. When I say "draw," I'm not saying we're all going to draw like Michelangelo. We are not going to be painting the Sistine Chapel's ceiling. But would you be happy if by the end of this session you could draw pictures a little bit like this? (Audience murmuring) Oh yes! (Laughter) Or even a little bit like this? (Laughter) Actually, there are only two things you need to do to be able to achieve this. One is have an open mind. Are you up for that? (Audience) Yes! And two, just be prepared to have a go. So, grab a pen and a piece of paper. OK, so here's how it's going to work: I’ll show you the first cartoon we're going to do, so just watch to begin with. Here we go. Just watching. That's going to be our first cartoon. It's a character called Spike. I'd like you to draw along with me. I'll draw the first line, you draw, and when you've done that, look up, and I'll know you're ready for the next line. OK, here we go. Start with the nose. Now the eyes. They're like 66s or speech marks. That's it. Next, the mouth. Nice big smile. Now over here, the ear. Next, some spiky hair. Next, put the pen to the left of the mouth, little line like that. Pen under the ear, drop a line like that. Pen to the left of the neck, top of the T-shirt. Line to the left, line to the right. Just hold your drawings up and show everyone. (Laughter) How are we all doing? (Laughter) OK. OK, fantastic. So, it looks like you've just learned to draw one cartoon, but you've actually learned more than that; you've learned a sequence that would enable you to draw hundreds and thousands of different cartoons because we're just going to do little variations on that sequence. Have a go at this. Draw along with me. Nose. Eyes. Smile. That's it. Now, some hair. Pen to the left of the mouth, under the hair, little V-shape for the top, line to the left, line to the right. So, we've got another character. Let's call her Thelma. (Laughter) So, we've got Spike and Thelma. Let's try another one. Here we go. Another little variation. You're getting the idea. Starting with the nose. But this time, we'll change the eyes slightly. Look, two circles together like that. That's it. Then two little dots in for the eyes. And this time, we'll change the mouth slightly. Watch. Little circle, colored in there. Have a go at that. Next, the ear. Now we'll have some fun with the hair, watch. Nice curly hair. Then, same thing: pen to the left of the mouth, little line like that. Under the ear, drop a line. Top of the T-shirt. Line to the left, line to the right. So, we've got another character. Let's call him Jeff. (Laughter) We'll do one more. One more go. Here we go. You're getting the idea. (Laughter) So, we'll start with a nose again. Notice we're doing little variations. Now, we'll change the eyes, so we've got them apart. We'll put some little dots in like that. Next, the mouth, slightly different. Let's put a little V-shape like that. Triangle. And a little line across, and we'll just color this a little bit in. Now, watch this bit carefully; some hair, watch. Here we go, little line like