How I Built My Life From Scratch? | Trang Thach Nguyen Phuong | TEDxFPTUniversityHCMC

[Applause] hello I'm te Chang I'm a YouTuber content creator video editor photographer makeup artist and stylist for myself yes I built her from this person to this person this one 5 years ago no one's know but this one some of you sitting here might know me and most importantly this one is standing here on this stage and thank you so much for letting me be here today it's such an honor to be on this stage and thank you so much for letting me tell you the story of how I start small or more specifically how I build my life from scratch I always believe that when the worst thing things happen to you you are the only one who can always be there for yourself and pick yourself back up that seems like a harsh thought right but I feel so safe and reassuring when I know that I am the only one who can count on myself and with that belief I strive every day to build myself stronger to be smart harder to get better every day so that I'm wise enough and strong enough to guide myself through every hardship in life when I first came to Germany my life start from zero I have zero friends zero acquaintances and zero money except for the money that my parents give me but it's that still not my money so and at that time I haven't even gotten into any school yet so technically I belong nowhere I'm not part of their society I'm completely on my own and at that time life opened up to me like a blank book and it's very scary and it's also very tiring to know that I have to fill it in little by little but it's also very inspiring to know that you are the one in charge now not your parents not your teacher but you are the one who's going to decide how this story start and how it goes so my first chapter was when my life start in student colleag that is like a preparation school for student from abroad so I have to stay there for a year before going into University so when I first get in I was the only one student from the waiting list so understandably I am the one at the bottom of the class other student might understand like 80% or 90% of the lecture but me I only understand like 0 to 10% I'm clueless and at that time my logic was okay if they understand 90% at at class at home they only have to study for another 10% but me I have to somehow put another 90% in my mind for the next day so that we can all start at the same position going forward and with that logic in mind I refuse to fall behind every day I went home at around 5:00 p. m. have dinner and then start studying from 700 p.

m. until midnight constantly translating memorizing mapping summarizing everything and there's a picture of my dorm room at that time this is the picture of my dorm room at that time and the only decoration that I have on the walls was lecture notes and that goes on for another six months until I realize that well my life in Germany start to get better you know when you don't understand the language you always feel so scar you always feel so passive and you always feel like you don't fully understand of your surrounding but 6 months later I start to understand a lot of my surrounding what happened around me uh what the teacher said in class what my classmates said to me and I start to gain my confidence and before I knew it 6 months mon another six Monon passed by and I graduate first of my class with the score of 1. 3 and the highest score in Germany is one I got 1.

3 and I graduated first in my class and that [Applause] event from a student who was at the bottom of the class at first I went to graduate first in my class and that event was so reassuring to me I proved to myself that whatever I want to achieve whatever I want in life I have to do it for myself and I can do it so after my life got a little bit easier I understand more of the language I got into University and I start to think of now I want to make money so I went through a lot of mini jobs I was like a interpreter I was a tutor I was a bartender um what else I was a a cashier and uh yeah I work also at McDonald as a server and at that time I collect through those mini job I collect a lot of mini story to fill in my books and from those mini story I will pick one out to tell you today that is a very funny story that is McDonald was the most memorable workplace for me at McDonald was the first time that I have to clean the public toilet I I didn't even clean my own toilet but I have to clean their toilet and then also at McDonald it was the first time that I have to work the night shift and went home at around 3:00 a. m.