Autumn Tamlyn

My name is Autumn and I was born in Silver Bay, New York. I grew up very near Lake George, surrounded by the Adirondack mountains. At a young age I fell in love with the outdoors and have always spent my free time hiking, skiing, kayaking, and adventuring. I spent my freshman year of college at SUNY Adirondack in upstate New York. Since then I have relocated and am currently a sophomore at Saint Michael’s college in Vermont. This fall I joined the Women's Tennis team here at Saint Michael's. I have been playing the cello for six years and currently play for the Saint Michael’s string orchestra. My favorite form of self expression is ballet and I have been dancing since I was four years old. At the age of fifteen, I began teaching ballet, jazz, lyrical, tap, and acro dance. Teaching dance led me to fall in love with the aspects of teaching and inspired me to work towards becoming a teacher in a more academic setting. Majoring in Secondary Education and Spanish, I aspire to one...

This TED Talk by Astro Teller discusses the importance of thinking big when it comes to your dreams and knowing that it is okay or even encouraged to fail. Teller starts his talk by explaining that a great dream is one that has a plan for action behind it. By using explanations of the seemingly impossible projects that Teller and his teams at GoogleX take on, he outlines the strategy, mindset, and dedication needed to accomplish great dreams. Teller's main message is that failure is a good thing. At GoogleX, development teams are working in an environment where failure is encouraged and celebrated. Team members are even given bonuses or even promotions when their projects fail. Now you might be asking yourself, how does that work? Doesn't that go against what we have been taught our whole lives about failure? The answer is yes, but as Teller explains to his audience, failure is needed in order to accomplish greatness. The problem is our world's negative attitude around...