TED Community » Kieran Preissler

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Making the world a better place for everybody. I foster social change through art and poetry and public education. Revolution and change starts with us

Comments

• TEDCred score: +6.40 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Conversation: What , for you, is the best song ever made?

  Feb 27 2013: "Closing Time" by Semisonic. I quoted this song in my speech at my high school graduation. More specifically, the quote "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end"

• A comment on Conversation: Is God Real?

  Feb 25 2013: I attend the local church in my town ever Sunday. But when i go, I go to see friends and meet new people. I also go to listen to the Bible scriptures. I do not necessarily believe in the one they call "God," but I do believe that the scriptures have fables in them. There are stories and parables in the Bible that have helped me through alot of tough times. I think of God as a role model that demonstrates one specific way to live a life.
• +5

  A comment on Conversation: What is the most important thing you've learned on your own?

  Feb 25 2013: I am what I want to be and not what other people think of me. When i was 3 years old, my mother and I were in a car accident; I survived, she didn't. I am now 18 years old.
  As devastating as it was, I'm thankful (in a weird, hindsight-led way) that my mom died when I was young. After she died, there was an outpouring of love that came onto out household. It seemed like everyone my mom and dad had ever known was calling us, the phone was constantly off the hook, and they were offering love. In a way, my mother's passing led to me being raised by the community we lived in.
  Now, here I stand 15 years later and I'm very active in activist circles campaigning for social justice, I slam poetry, and all the local business owners know me on a first name basis.
  The most important thing I've learned on my own is that from every loss, every devastating blow, there is good. Although it may not be obvious, or it may not reveal itself until decades later, it is there. I am a child of the streets, even though I have a loving father, and I consider everyone in my community a member of my extended family.

• A comment on Conversation: What is the something you learned as an adult you wished you learned as a child?

  Feb 25 2013: "I am what I want to be and not what other people think of me."
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  A comment on Conversation: Love, and be loved.

  Feb 6 2013: Often times I find myself thrust into a random and unexplainable feeling of gratuitity and thankfulness and joy, out of the blue. It seems to occur either as I'm getting ready in the morning, which is great because it fills me with optimism and good thoughts, or when i'm just relaxing, usually listening to vinyl LPs or skateboarding outside.
  When this feeling hits me, I become overwhelmed with this feeling that everything is going to be alright; that I have reached true happiness, even if just for a moment; that I'm surrounded by friends who love me and I love back.
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: Can you tell us your life story in one sentence?

  Feb 6 2013: At 18 years of age, I've hit rock bottom devastation and I've seen my situation become miraculously better.
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  A comment on Conversation: Do you watch TEDxTalks that aren't posted at TED?

  Feb 4 2013: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAox9e1cpsQ is the link to the TEDx poem I wrote and preformed as a 17 year-old. One of the proudest moments of my life so far, the poem is about my frustration of how we, as humans, can't get along
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: What inspires you about your favorite city?

  Feb 1 2013: I am continually intrigued by how diverse large cities are: how multicultural the societies are and how vibrantly they are represented throughout the city.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: Is a 4 year college always the right way to go?

  Feb 1 2013: As a second semester community college student, I think that the 4 year university path is not always the best path for some people. When I graduated from High School, I honestly had no idea what I wanted to do with my life (I was in a local poetry club, and I had dabbled a little in activism and I was well-known for volunteering for a majority of causes), and I had little motivation to immediately choose a path for my future.
  But now I'm still seeking a passion to pursue and I've been advised by several people to "continually practice my art" by going to a Four-Year and taking classes related to my art field.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: Do you believe that social media has influenced the credibility of our words?

  Feb 1 2013: I feel like social media has opened up a new dimension of communication. Before social networking sites began popping up on the internet, we communicated mainly through face-to-face conversation, telephone calls, and handwritten (or typed) letters. But now that we've harnessed the power of the internet, we have become accustomed to exchanging ideas with our peers instantly.
  With this breakthrough in communication, there comes several advantages and disadvantages. Some might feel more comfortable engaging in conversation when they don't have to be seen doing the action; others might feel as though what they say on the internet cannot necessarily be traced back to them, therefore they get the sense that they will be held unaccountable for what they post online. There are also those who use social media with the same mindset as they would real-life situations: they post only what they truly believe and are willing to back up anything they say if confronted by someone else.
  I guess what I'm trying to say is, the credibility of one's words is dependent on how accurate of a portrayal one's posts online are to what they truly believe.