How a penny made me feel like a millionaire
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0:01 - 0:05I'm five years old, and I am very proud.
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0:05 - 0:08My father has just built the best outhouse
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0:08 - 0:11in our little village in Ukraine.
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0:11 - 0:14Inside, it's a smelly,
gaping hole in the ground, -
0:14 - 0:18but outside, it's pearly white formica
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0:18 - 0:22and it literally gleams in the sun.
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0:22 - 0:26This makes me feel so proud, so important,
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0:26 - 0:29that I appoint myself the leader
of my little group of friends -
0:29 - 0:31and I devise missions for us.
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0:31 - 0:34So we prowl from house to house
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0:34 - 0:37looking for flies captured in spider webs
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0:37 - 0:40and we set them free.
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0:40 - 0:42Four years earlier, when I was one,
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0:42 - 0:43after the Chernobyl accident,
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0:43 - 0:46the rain came down black,
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0:46 - 0:48and my sister's hair fell out in clumps,
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0:48 - 0:50and I spent nine months in the hospital.
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0:50 - 0:52There were no visitors allowed,
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0:52 - 0:56so my mother bribed a hospital worker.
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0:56 - 0:59She acquired a nurse's uniform,
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0:59 - 1:03and she snuck in every night
to sit by my side. -
1:03 - 1:06Five years later,
an unexpected silver lining. -
1:06 - 1:10Thanks to Chernobyl,
we get asylum in the U.S. -
1:10 - 1:14I am six years old, and I don't
cry when we leave home -
1:14 - 1:15and we come to America,
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1:15 - 1:19because I expect it to be
a place filled with rare -
1:19 - 1:23and wonderful things
like bananas and chocolate -
1:23 - 1:26and Bazooka bubble gum,
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1:26 - 1:30Bazooka bubble gum
with the little cartoon wrappers inside, -
1:30 - 1:33Bazooka that we'd get
once a year in Ukraine -
1:33 - 1:37and we'd have to chew
one piece for an entire week. -
1:37 - 1:39So the first day we get to New York,
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1:39 - 1:41my grandmother and I find a penny
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1:41 - 1:45in the floor of the homeless shelter
that my family's staying in. -
1:45 - 1:46Only, we don't know
that it's a homeless shelter. -
1:46 - 1:49We think that it's a hotel,
a hotel with lots of rats. -
1:49 - 1:54So we find this penny kind
of fossilized in the floor, -
1:54 - 1:57and we think that a very wealthy
man must have left it there -
1:57 - 2:00because regular people
don't just lose money. -
2:00 - 2:02And I hold this penny
in the palm of my hand, -
2:02 - 2:05and it's sticky and rusty,
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2:05 - 2:08but it feels like I'm holding a fortune.
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2:08 - 2:10I decide that I'm going
to get my very own piece -
2:10 - 2:12of Bazooka bubble gum.
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2:12 - 2:16And in that moment, I feel
like a millionaire. -
2:16 - 2:18About a year later, I get
to feel that way again -
2:18 - 2:21when we find a bag full
of stuffed animals in the trash, -
2:21 - 2:23and suddenly I have more toys
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2:23 - 2:25than I've ever had in my whole life.
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2:25 - 2:28And again, I get that feeling
when we get a knock -
2:28 - 2:30on the door of our apartment in Brooklyn,
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2:30 - 2:32and my sister and I find a deliveryman
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2:32 - 2:35with a box of pizza that we didn't order.
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2:35 - 2:38So we take the pizza,
our very first pizza, -
2:38 - 2:41and we devour slice after slice
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2:41 - 2:44as the deliveryman stands there
and stares at us from the doorway. -
2:44 - 2:47And he tells us to pay,
but we don't speak English. -
2:47 - 2:50My mother comes out,
and he asks her for money, -
2:50 - 2:51but she doesn't have enough.
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2:51 - 2:54She walks 50 blocks
to and from work every day -
2:54 - 2:57just to avoid spending money on bus fare.
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2:57 - 2:59Then our neighbor pops her head in,
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2:59 - 3:01and she turns red with rage
when she realizes -
3:01 - 3:04that those immigrants from downstairs
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3:04 - 3:08have somehow gotten
their hands on her pizza. -
3:08 - 3:09Everyone's upset.
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3:09 - 3:13But the pizza is delicious.
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3:13 - 3:19It doesn't hit me until years
later just how little we had. -
3:19 - 3:21On our 10 year anniversary
of being in the U.S., -
3:21 - 3:23we decided to celebrate
by reserving a room -
3:24 - 3:26at the hotel that we first stayed
in when we got to the U.S. -
3:26 - 3:29The man at the front desk
laughs, and he says, -
3:29 - 3:32"You can't reserve a room here.
This is a homeless shelter." -
3:32 - 3:34And we were shocked.
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3:34 - 3:38My husband Brian was also
homeless as a kid. -
3:38 - 3:41His family lost everything, and at age 11,
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3:41 - 3:44he had to live in motels with his dad,
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3:44 - 3:47motels
that would round up all of their food -
3:47 - 3:50and keep it hostage until they were
able to pay the bill. -
3:50 - 3:52And one time, when he finally got his box
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3:52 - 3:56of Frosted Flakes back, it
was crawling with roaches. -
3:56 - 3:58But he did have one thing.
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3:58 - 4:01He had this shoebox that he carried
with him everywhere -
4:01 - 4:03containing nine comic books,
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4:03 - 4:06two G.I. Joes painted
to look like Spider-Man -
4:06 - 4:09and five Gobots. And
this was his treasure. -
4:09 - 4:12This was his own assembly of heroes
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4:12 - 4:14that kept him from drugs and gangs
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4:15 - 4:17and from giving up on his dreams.
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4:17 - 4:18I'm going to tell you about one more
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4:18 - 4:21formerly homeless member of our family.
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4:21 - 4:23This is Scarlett.
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4:23 - 4:26Once upon a time, Scarlet
was used as bait in dog fights. -
4:26 - 4:28She was tied up and thrown into the ring
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4:28 - 4:32for other dogs to attack so they'd get
more aggressive before the fight. -
4:32 - 4:37And now, these days, she eats organic food
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4:37 - 4:39and she sleeps on an orthopedic
bed with her name on it, -
4:39 - 4:44but when we pour water
for her in her bowl, -
4:44 - 4:48she still looks up and she wags
her tail in gratitude. -
4:48 - 4:51Sometimes Brian and I walk
through the park with Scarlett, -
4:51 - 4:53and she rolls through the grass,
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4:53 - 4:56and we just look at her
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4:56 - 4:57and then we look at each other
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4:57 - 5:01and we feel gratitude.
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5:01 - 5:05We forget about all of our new
middle-class frustrations -
5:05 - 5:07and disappointments,
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5:07 - 5:10and we feel like millionaires.
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5:10 - 5:11Thank you.
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5:11 - 5:15(Applause)
- Title:
- How a penny made me feel like a millionaire
- Speaker:
- Tania Luna
- Description:
-
As a young child, Tania Luna left her home in post-Chernobyl Ukraine to take asylum in the US. And one day, on the floor of the New York homeless shelter where she and her family lived, she found a penny. She has never again felt so rich. A meditation on the bittersweet joys of childhood -- and how to hold them in mind.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 05:31
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for How a penny made me feel like a millionaire | ||
janet dragojevic edited English subtitles for How a penny made me feel like a millionaire | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for How a penny made me feel like a millionaire | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for How a penny made me feel like a millionaire | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for How a penny made me feel like a millionaire | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for How a penny made me feel like a millionaire | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for How a penny made me feel like a millionaire | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for How a penny made me feel like a millionaire |