Response to Ric Elias TED Talk

One day, Ric Elias was one a relaxing plane flight to Manhattan, when there were some problems and the plane crashed into the Hudson River. He talks about the three things that he learned that day. First that everything changes in an instant. We have so many things that we want to do in life, but it could all end at once. Second, letting his ego get in the way of his life. He uses the great example and says, " All the time I wasted on things that did not matter with people that did matter." Last, the third thing that he says is that dying really is not scary. He lived a good life and even though he did not want to go, it is like he has been preparing for it his whole life.

These ideas that Ric talks about brought about many new ideas and questions for me. For his first idea, it is like making sure that you do everything that you can before you are gone. People in our society think that they will live forever, and so they are not conscious of anything that they do. They might do things in life that will really come back to haunt them, and that they will really regret. People need to live as if today was their last day (because it really could be). We need to live everyday with a good attitude, and we need to help others and not push off our kindness to some other day. But, what really makes me wonder is, why do we need a life changing experience such as a plane crash to realize this? Why do so many people think that they will never die, or live in that mindset? Why do people not give their kindness everyday and all the time? Ric also talks about his ego getting in the way of his way of life. For example, he puts his own needs in front of the needs of other people. he talks about how we need to realize that we are not more important than everyone else in the world. We never know if we will see someone ever again and if we waste our time with them on ourselves, it will never turn out well. Why do we let our own wants overcome the needs of others?  I think that people should give up their time to help others instead of taking it all for themselves. It shows how selfish our world has become. Last, he talks about dying. We really spend our whole live working up to death, but most people still are taken by surprise. He said that it also brought him sadness though. He loved his life and did not want to go just like everyone else on this planet, and it made him think of the one idea, watching his kids grow up. For me, I think that my thoughts would be how I lived my life. Did I make an impact on everyone that I met? Did I do something that made their life better instead of worse? Was I open to everyone? And even just by typing these sentences I can tell that I haven't, and I think that all people need this wake up call.

                                              

As for Elias's speaking and presentation styles, I think that he did a good job. He did not really have a much different presentation style as any of the other speakers we have seen, but he still did a good job. He put in little bits of comedy, but I also liked how he put in his examples. His example of the plane crash did a good job of explaining what he was trying to say and he did a good job.

                                        

Many points were presented in this video, but for what really matters, I think that it is to make every day like it was your last. This is really important to everyone in the world and especially in our generation. We need to know that everything does not revolve around us, and that others matter more. We need to do what we can to improve the lives of others and help them to succeed. To me personally this matters because I know that I can improve on this. I need to put others in front me instead of thinking only about myself, and it would make my life and the lives of those around me much better. To education, this matters for the teachers and the way that they teach. If teachers would teach as if all of the kids would be gone the next day, and they could only teach them one thing, education would be much more successful. The teachers would give the kids ideas that truly matter and they could show them what they need to do. To the world, if the entire world stopped caring only about themselves, every one's lives would be fuller and more worth living. And, much of our generations selfishness would disappear.