Transcriber: Reem Sarem
Reviewer: Duy Le Solía tartamudear. De hecho, era terriblemente tímida
cuando era una niña Fue la escuela lo que me salvó. Para hacer amigos, tenía que hablar.
Y amo hacer amigos. La escuela , también, fue el lugar
donde aprendí a soñar en grande Mejor dicho, mi primer año
en la escuela secundaria. Fui, a una asamblea donde el orador cambió
el curso de mi vida El dijo: menos del 1% de la población se
establece objetivos. Entonces, si tu lo haces, estaras un 99% en ventaja con el resto del mundo Eso era. Decidí que iba a cumplir
todos mis objetivos Objetivo número uno: Algun día, Iba a mudarme de
una maldita vez de la helada Filadelfia El objetivo número dos fue cuando lo hice Estaba tan agradecida de que
iba a volver a mi escuela secundaria It was easy to learn to give
back because one day a teacher came up to me in high school
and invited me the stutterer, to audition to anchor the morning news.
Imagine my fear. I was literally shaking, but
I went forward anyway. And then when I looked into the camera,
I didn't stutter and I got the gig. And the best part is my stutter
never came back in. Even more amazing, I found my career. I looked into the camera and I thought,
people get paid to do this. I want to be a journalist and lift
people's spirits and tell amazing stories and share their shine. So that's
exactly what I set out to do. Unfortunately, going to college was
a really hard stretch for me. Thankfully, I fought for that too.
As a goal slayer. I interned in more places than any student
in my high school in history. I actually got a scholarship from
CBS News and my high school and thank goodness for my college. After New York, I went because
I researched it. That's TV market number one.
Great place to learn. I also learned when they brought
in speakers that I was an inspirational story junkie. I also noticed that it was important,
actually critical, to speak your dreams as often as possible,
wherever possible. So in my summer job, when
I worked 70 hours a week putting myself through school, my friend Nicole knew my dream and we
were checking people into a hotel. And she said, Listen to me, you've
got to switch lanes. So we did. And as I was checking in, Rob Wallace, I read to my delight that he
was a producer at ABC News. So I said, Mr. Wallace, I have
an internship set up in the public relations division next
semester. Do you think I'll enjoy it? And he looked at my nametag and
he said, Well, Meredith, what do you want to do when
you graduate from college? To which I said, What I always say retire
legendary newscaster Barbara Walters or Oprah Winfrey, whichever came up first. He grinned ear to ear and pulled his
business card out of his pocket and said, Well, then you won't be needing that
public relations internship. I'm Barbara Walters, producer.
You need to intern with me. I couldn't believe it.
Speaking your dreams and sharing them with everybody possible
unlocked amazing opportunities for me. Not only did I get to work with my hero, but I was invited to be the only person
in the United States to work on Barbara Walters special. And she
invited me to work on Barbara Walters. The View. The best part is my part time
job in college was working for ABC News. Before I graduated, I was a little crazy. I sent out over 100 resumes five
months before graduation. And so you can imagine how excited
I was when I finally decided I was going to take a job working
on a talk show at CNBC. I was so excited, which is freakish. I graduated on a Friday and started
my job on a Monday. Sadly, on the third week in,
we were canceled. Nobody told me to ask about the ratings. If any of you are going to take an
entertainment job on a TV show, please ask about the ratings. Dejected and sad, I decided I'd go home
to freezing cold Philadelphia. What's a girl to do? But hell, have
Mom and mom and dad help out? Except it was a challenge. I had to reach out to over 200 people to
get a gig on the air in my hometown, which was TV market number four. But
I got the gig and guess what? It paid Horrible. And the first assignment
they sent me out on was into a blizzard. But here's the thing I'm
going to tell you about Shine. In order to run down your dream
and shine wherever you are, the conditions might not always be right. But when you're running down your dream,
it can be amazing. Speaking of amazing, I went
on to make moves. I actually got hired to be a weekend
anchor in all places, Beckley, West Virginia. But I was thrilled. And then I was actually extremely excited
when I got a morning anchor job for ABC News and wait for it freezing cold
. Burlington, Vermont. This is how I started every day for 30
days. Good morning. I'm Meredith Allen. And here are your headlines. It's 17 below because it was 17 below
every day for my first 30 days. But I didn't care. I felt like
I was winning in life until And get this, to make matters worse,
we were replaced with The Simpsons. Funny now not so funny. Then I cried my
entire way home when my dad came to get me with our moving truck all the
way from Burlington, Vermont, back to freezing cold Philadelphia. But this time I had a little bit
of experience under my belt, so I landed an amazing gig
on CNN Headline News, anchoring the news every 30 minutes
with a local cut in. And somebody was looking out for me and I got selected to host my own
TV talk show in my hometown. Now, I thought I really made it. But as all crazy girls do, I fell in love
and my man lived in South Carolina, so I figured I could at least get a little
bit further away from the cold and head south. I went
south and I decided. It was really, really stretchy that I was going to host my own show
called The Meredith Show. That's the television I host to this day. And all I do is showcase inspiring stories
of people overcoming adversity. I got NBC to pick it up on the highest
rated NBC affiliate in the nation. But as it turned out, that relationship
didn't work out. And I wasn’t being true to myself
if I was being honest, getting out of the cold and
getting to California. So like any crazy woman, after
a dream and her shine, I packed up my most prized possession,
my rescue dog biscuit, and we drove all the way across the
country, just the two of us. And then when we got west, we stopped in Las Vegas because that's
where my mom and dad had retired. And sadly, my dad wasn't doing very well. So unexpectedly, I wound up staying there
for two years until once again, I got to speak my dream. My best friends
and I were going around the room and we were talking about our big, hairy,
scary goals. I've always wanted to live in California,
but I can't seem to get there. My friend Cynthia said, That's easy. I just bought an investment property and
renovated. It's ready right now. We all decided that I got to go, so I
went home to tell my mom and dad. They were not excited. They
thought I was insane. My mother actually said, Let
me get this straight. You want to leave everybody
you know and love to go to a city where you literally
have one friend. And do you know about the fires, the traffic and insane home
prices in California, all of which are completely true. And
I said yes, but I was dejected. I couldn't leave everybody I knew
and loved. I went to bed so sad. And then when I woke up in the morning,
it was like a lightning bolt hit me. It didn't matter what my
mother and father said. This was my life and my dream. I was going
to California. I was on my way. And when I got there. The most
unbelievable thing happened. I got my first enormous paid speaking gig. a sold out standing room only national
leadership conference. I totally felt I was living my dream. My mama was in the front row cheering
me on. What a full circle moment. And that was when I got a horrific
kick in the pants. My mom called me a few
weeks later and said, Your dad has been diagnosed with stage
four terminal pancreatic cancer. I dropped everything. I practically moved
back in with mom and dad once again. And then my dad's final birthday came up. And everybody was getting him
amazing physical gifts, So instead, I shared his shine
with him. I wrote a book. I wrote him every lesson
that he ever told me. All my favorite memories about my dad. And I wrote down every funny thing
that I remembered we did together because my dad was hilarious. Actually, I think if I even have one
tenth of his funny, I'm grateful. Sadly, my dad died 91 days
after diagnosis. Have you ever been so devastated that
you can't even think straight? That was me. And I kept racking my brain. Like, how do you be an inspirational
speaker when you're so sad? And then it hit me. I hadn't given
back to my high school yet, so I decided to fly a little
over 3000 miles, put myself up in a hotel
in the dead of winter. And the day came when I decided
I was going to give a speech. I wrote it called You Can
Overcome Anything. And I really hoped that was true because
I was still so heartbroken. The day came and of course,
it was like a blizzard. I can't believe they didn't close school. And the best part is my school grew
so big we had to do two assemblies and looking out into the audience, my old eyes couldn't even see the
top of the stadium seating, and at the end the kids lined up.
I'm like, totally confused. What are they lining up for? They wanted
to take selfies with me for social media. But the most touching thing happened.
Time and time again. They kept telling me how grateful
they were for me, reminding them that their dreams were
not only possible, but important. It was literally the most rewarding
experience of my life. Nobody understood why it was so
important for me to do it. But I was so grateful. I followed my heart
. And speaking of my heart. There was another great thing waiting for
me in California. And it was love. He was waiting for me. And that's
our fur, baby. That's Biscuit. Biscuit walked me down the aisle
on that special day. I felt like I hit the jackpot. My husband came with a son, and now
I have a stepson. Double win. I had always wanted a son and a husband. But you can imagine when the next kick
in the pants came, I came undone, you see? I didn't realize it. But my longest running relationship in
life, my biggest love was Biscuit. We have been together through
thick and thin. And it became very evident
she was falling ill. We rushed her to see the veterinarian
and he said the thing that no dog owner wants to hear,
we have to put her down. I literally think that when I felt
her take her last breaths, I was holding her paws. I literally
think my heart shattered into a thousand pieces. I literally could
not imagine my life without her. We were inseparable. And then I started remembering. Do you
know my sweet rescue pup biscuits? Woke up every day at 6 a.m. excited, Woke me up to to feed her the
same food no matter what. She was always so excited whether I left
the house for 5 minutes or 5 hours. When I opened the door, it was like a
celebration. I couldn't believe it. She was always jumping up and down,
shrieking with delight, doing circles. And sometimes I even got kisses. I started to think Biscuit
had shine on lockdown. The thing about it is I wasn't feeling so
shiny. And then I thought about it. For all of us running down a dream.
Following our shine. Our gifts is a choice. So I'm going
to ask to honor Sweet Biscay. For every single one of you
to please stand up. I'd like every single one of
you to stand up right now. And I am going to help you. For the love of biscuit, feel your shine
because you were born to shine. And I’m gonna say afew things
you’ll repeat after me and raise your hands. Here's the deal.
In life, you may have a disability. You, like me, may have a huge challenge
for me. I stuttered. It was awful and I didn't think
I had a career ahead of me, certainly not in broadcasting. But
somebody takes a chance on you. Somebody says, Please audition
and you're shaking with fear, but you do it anyway. Repeat after me. Shine is saying yes when
fear is telling you no, Shine is saying yes when
fear is telling you no. Because trust me, the fear
never goes away. You'll be afraid your entire life, especially if you're running
down a dream and a lot of people will doubt you.
You'll doubt yourself. You'll come up with excuses. Trust me, I
know it comes up over and over again. But the truth is, at the end of the day,
you've got to follow your heart. You might have to drive cross country
all alone with your fur, baby. You might have to do exactly what your
mom and dad think you shouldn't. And that's moved to California. That
was my story. Repeat after me. Shine is following your heart. Shine is
following your heart. That's right. Not your head, not logic. That doesn't
always pan out for you. You got to get a little
crazy and in the end, turn to somebody next to you right now
and say you were born to shine. Yes, you were. And not if, but when life
kicks you in the pants. I want you to remember you,
my friends, are a light. And you are courageous and
stronger than you know. And you were born to shine bright. And whatever you do, please don't delay
your gifts, your goals and your dreams. Don't waste a minute and shine right now. Thank you. Thank.
