Bullied and Beautiful

Shane Koyczan gave an inspiring Ted Talk in his own amazing way, with poetry.  In Shane's poem, he talks about a problem in our society.  The problem of bullying, and what it does inside of that individual.

The story that Shane shares, with his poetry, is that of The Triumphant Individual in Reich's Cultural Parables.  Maybe not an individual triumph that gets the girl, the fame, or the riches in the end.  He tells about a triumph all his own, "the balancing act of life.  That is now has less to do with pain, but more to do with beauty."

Shane does a remarkable job sharing the pains of feeling alone, and cast out due by being bullied.  He describes the first process premise of needing reassurance, and emotional security, when he as child traded homework to fit in.  Shane creates a cognitive affect in his audience using that same premise.

The cognitive affect in us all is the realization of the remembrance of these feelings, and the need for reassurance and emotional security.  "That is why we cheer on the underdog," Shane says.  He persuades his audience, through this cognitive affect, to think differently about being asked as a child, "what do you want to be when you grow up?"  He helped us all to see when we grow up there is nothing wrong with being us.  Shane then emotionally lifted the audience helping them to understand that the bullies were wrong.  "We are not abandoned cars," we can get up when we are down.

Shane also ties his story, about his life, into Maslow's Hierarchy of needs.  He talks about esteem and being determined to love himself "despite the ease at which I lean towards the opposite."  He shows the value of loving yourself, overcoming, balancing life, and knowing you’re beautiful.

Shane was successful with his usage of the process premise.  Shane made his point through persuading us all to remember, we made it through being bullied.  "We graduated,” we are balancing life, sometimes there are ups, and there are many downs.  Shane is successful at persuading us all that we too "only have to walk to get gas."