TED Talks & Bar Crawls

A Saint Patrick’s Day bar crawl, a men’s hockey game, prospective student tours, and Afro Diasporic dance workshops: all part of just another Saturday at The Ohio State University. I wasn’t in any of those places though, and instead, I was sitting in the quiet darkness of Mershon Auditorium, listening to people talk. Not just any people though—these were fascinating, intelligent, I-could-listen-to-you-forever people. They were giving TED talks, live, put on by OSU’s very own TEDx organization. 

It’s likely you’ve heard of TED, or at least seen one of their videos. TED stands for Technology, Education, and Design, and it’s a nonprofit dedicated to sharing, according to their slogan, “ideas worth spreading.” TED produces talks on a wide variety of topics, ranging from pop culture, to medicine, to business, by a variety of people who are well versed in their field. In addition to the yearly national TED conference, TED also hosts a variety of independently organized events, called TEDx. 

After hearing about agricultural guest-workers, silent disco for dementia patients, neuroplastic reconstructive surgery, and paranormal horror films, it came time for the last TED talk, given by Dr. Angus Fletcher, a professor in the Department of English at OSU. He received a B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology at The University of Michigan while also working at a neurophysiology lab at U of M’s College of Medicine, and then went on to pursue a PhD in Literature at Yale. Talk about diverse interests. 

Dr. Fletcher began his talk by telling us a story about a group of veterans. They’d endured the unimaginable in war, were suffering from its effects, and no one had been able to find a successful treatment. So, they decided to pay a visit to a new clinic, whose staff suggested that they begin to journal about their experiences. For most of the veterans, the technique didn’t do much except resuscitate the pain they’d experienced. But, for one, journaling had a much different effect. Dr. Fletcher went on to describe that after he and his team had analyzed all of the journals, only one stood out, and it was written by the only veteran who had subsequently felt changed after the exercise. What was the difference, you may ask? He had written about something good. 

As it turns out, Dr. Fletcher discovered that one of the best coping mechanisms we have as human beings is actually to find optimism in the face of difficulty. His multifaceted education has allowed him to integrate neuroscience and literature in his research today, which led him to describe the following phenomenon. When we read a book with an unexpected ending, or watch a film with a 180 we didn’t see coming, we experience surprise, and wonderment, which are the same emotions the veteran likely felt as he reflected on the good that had happened to him after his experiences in war. The kicker, though, is that the effects of simply seeing or reading these plot twists aren’t long lasting, and we’re likely to forget about it a few minutes later. We have to seek out the plot twists in our own lives in order to gain any benefit from the practice. 

As I continued listening to Dr. Fletcher’s talk, a tear rolled down my cheek, but not because it was particularly emotional. In fact, the talk was actually quite academic. I cried because it was applicable to my own life. 

My younger sister died a little over 5 years ago, and the question of how to cling to optimism in the face of tragedy has remained with me since. Upon reflection, had I known the depth of the suffering I would experience because of my sister’s death, I don’t know that I would have subjected myself to it. But it did happen, regardless of whether I think it should have, and life, more often than not, is about how we choose to move forward under the circumstances we’ve been given, not about what we deserve. Everyday, I can choose to utilize the abilities that have been born from my sister’s death, or I can choose to be bitter and unleash my anger on those around me. 

My sister was irreplaceable, and I lost her. But I’ve also gained something irreplaceable: empathy. I think this was my plot twist. Now that I understand what it’s like to experience grief, I just care more. Not only about grieving people, but about people in general. Human suffering is universal, but perhaps that’s what unites us, and that’s also why it’s important to take care of your neighbor in whatever way you have the capacity to. It’s what has driven my passion for running an organization like Uplift: the knowledge that maybe, just maybe, the difference we’re making in these kids' lives will be their plot twist. And that’s worth more to me than anything. 

Sarah Weglarz

Uplift Youth Volunteers Co-President