Transcript for:
The Transformative Power of Reading

[Music] assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatu imagine imagine living in a world full of wizards and Dragons imagine that your best friend is an alien imagine that you could go anywhere you want in this world the sand the desert at a space in the bottom of the ocean anywhere you want you name it imagine falling in love with the princess woo imagine being a soldier in the First World War see all of that seems somewhat impossible in reality but all of that can come true by reading books my name is Mohammad Udacity yonder I'm from 11 states senior high school Surabaya and today I would like to talk about how does books save us see I believe that there is something undeniably special about reading and not only that we love to read but we love to talk about them as well with our friends and without family so how does books save us I can't speak for everyone in this room so let me tell you how does a book save me see books made me the person I am today my life my career choices my emotions my feelings are the reasons of my reading habits see as a child I did not like to read I was lonely I had no friends and books saved me at that time as well I was struggling to find the proper path in my life and books guided me to find that path see I was troubled I had no friends books have been my loyal companion since childhood and they still continue to be until today see I believe that there's something undeniably special reading is like a sport it takes time practice and dedication and in order for us to know more about this world we need to read as much as we can see reading invigorates me it sharpens my mind makes my soul dance I love it when a book takes me to the furthest part of my brain and expands my knowledge see right now we live in a constant state of evolution evolution in the mind body and soul and in order for us as even beings to evolve we need to learn more and more about the world see what I'm trying to say is in order for us to have knowledge of the world we need to learn and in order for us to learn we need to read I want to ask you guys a question here today did you read a book today did you open the book today did you hold a book today see judging by your expressions I know that some of you if not most of you won't even open the book unless your parents or your teachers tell you to am i right I may be wrong and say bear with me see as a kid I did not like to read as well but I love it when someone else read to me that way I could get into the story without getting my words all mixed and jumbled up one of the teachers who would love to read to me was called miss Thornton Berg who I'll call her Miss Dottie she's Australian from New South Wales Newcastle she was fierce looking but essentially it was a really nice person she's the one who taught me how to read and how to write and how to act out words phonetically for those of you who don't know what phonetically means phonetically means acting out the words and breaking them into different parts for example I give you the word recognition you can break that word from going to rare cognition you break them into valves this really helped me with my spelling and my pronunciation and really helped me with my reading as well see one of my funniest experience when I was younger about how does a book save me was at that time I was in junior high school I was in year 7 and at that time I went to the library the librarian said I could pick any book that I wanted from the bookshelf so I grabbed that book I showed at the librarian you know what the librarian said the librarian said no put that book back you're still too young see the title of the book that upward was how do I get girls to like me see as a teenager I didn't think about my future I think about how do I smell good how do I look good and how do I get girls to like me and I found a big problem in my life at that time see that book till this day had saved my life from being alone or the term tumblr I hope you guys enjoyed my speech and I know I've made a ton of mistakes but then again I'm only human so I'm found to all of them and like the saying goes what doesn't kill you makes you stronger thank you for your attention wassalamualaikum one tool I've ever gotten