To This Day … for the bullied and beautiful

Don’t let your luggage define your travels; each life unravels differently
Shane Koyczan

I came across the powerful TED presentation below by Shane Koyczan, and had to share it: To This Day … for the bullied and beautiful.

Deeply moving and wonderfully lyrical, it’s a lament for the pain suffered by those who are bullied when young, as well a testament to the courage and resilience of those who are able to transcend their past and become the “people they are” as adults – beautiful and whole.

I finished watching with a lump in my throat as well as a strong desire to throw my fist in the air with a resounding “YES”. :)

I hope you’ll enjoy listening to Shane’s performance as much as I did.

[ted id=1687 width=460 height=260]

Shane’s poem also became the To This Day Project, in which his spoken words were accompanied by animations developed by more than 80 ‘crowd-sourced’ animators as a collaborative, volunteer project. Do visit the website, where you can learn more about the project – and also read the poem in its entirety if you would like to do so.

And for those who would like to watch it, here is the animated movie:

[youtube clip_id=”ltun92DfnPY” width=”424″ height=”241″]