Lauren+D's+Final+AmEx+2015+Speech


 * One Second Every Day **

1 second. That’s a day. 30 seconds, a month. 365, a year. One second from each day for a year adds up to about 6 minutes. Imagine being able to watch and remember 10 years of your life in an hour. An idea as simple as this has changed my life for the better. By stepping back from our constant busy lives, we can learn a lot about ourselves and the world around us.

Around November of last year my cousin showed me a TED talk about a man who has decided to film one second of his life each day, and compile them together into one long video for the rest of his life. At first I thought this sounded silly and impractical, but my cousin convinced me to give it a shot. So I downloaded the app “One second every day” to get started. This has changed my life in so many ways.

So basically, you take a video of anything you please through this app, which then allows you to choose the one second portion you want in your video. At any point in time you can compile them to make a longer one with the date in the corner. Simple.

Going in I knew I would need to set a few rules for myself, and some standards to hold myself to. Most importantly, I decided I didn’t want to be the focus of the video, I wanted it to be from my perspective, what I see, the way I would remember it. I also try to take the video as a candid, rather than everyone looking at the camera and smiling. My third rule was that if I were to forget a day, I would have to leave that space blank. Well lets just say all the blank spaces in the beginning really bothered me, and the app has a feature allowing you to import a video from another day, so that rule did not last very long. These rules, standards, values, whatever you would call them really taught me a lot about what I value.

My favorite video I have so far is a clip from a time lapse of me and my friends getting ready for a performance around Christmas. I love that it’s not only a reminder of the day, but of the feeling of preparing for a show, with all the rushing around and excitement. I also love one I have of the most beautiful sunset at the beach. These are moments I want to remember forever, and luckily I get to.

When it all comes down to it, I don’t take these videos just to make a cool longer one at the end of the year in November. I take these videos because of the important things they remind me of every time I press record, or look back at the old ones. I remember the importance of slowing down and taking the time to live in the now. After all, we are only promised this moment. I remember to look for the beauty in everyday scenes. I remember to see the beauty in every human being around me, and the way they interact. I remember the potential this day has to be great and memorable. I remember to appreciate the great moments because there will be times when the part of the day you remember is bad. I remember to see things, not just look at them, but see them, and that has made a world of difference. Most importantly, I have learned to love every day because no matter what happens, there is at least one second of happiness that I can capture and remember forever.

Now honestly, it’s unrealistic to say this happens every time I take a video, and there are a lot of days when I forget. There are also a lot of times I get so caught up in the good moment I completely forget to take a video, which can be frustrating but in the end I would rather truly enjoy the moment than be on my phone trying to take a video. This has helped me with my pessimistic, negative attitude. Although I still find myself complaining a lot, I have noticed an overall appreciation for everyone and everything around me. We all have so much potential and are so lucky to be alive and here, it’s easy to forget that when you are knee deep in chapter packets and prelabs.

I am excited to see what new seconds await me in the future, I can only imagine sitting down with my family one day to watch a year in the life of 17 year old me. It’s crazy to think that one year would be over 6 minutes of footage. And 10 years would be 1 hour. By the time I’m 47 I could have 3 hours representing every day of my life for 30 years. Just imagine all the possibilities.

In my ideal America, people would understand how important it is to slow down and appreciate the beauty in our existence. Some people can do that on their own and some need a reminder like me, with my one second video.


 * Cite your sources **

http://1secondeveryday.com/ http://www.ted.com/talks/cesar_kuriyama_one_second_every_day?language=en