Redefining What it Means to Matter

I don't want this video to sound like a cop-out...like "Oh, you don't have to do big things, you can just live a little life." We all have to work very hard...there are a great many things that need to get done. We need to heal each other, deal with catastrophe and war and increasingly scarce resources.

These are huge things that are going to be done by many teams of people and absolutely ZERO isolated individuals. But we have to understand that the mythology of the singular hero is dubious at best. In fact, we are all going to work our BUTTS off to make the world better for ourselves and for each other. How you do it is up to you. Thank you for doing it in whatever way you can...for using your abilities and your skills and your talent and your labor for future generations (and all of us today) to feast upon.

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[ajaxbird]

I saw this quote once that makes me feel better about this whole thing. "It's okay if you only save one person. And it's okay if that person is you."

[Jason-kejf]

They said I didn't matter....

So I became energy.

[MSLP]

I think people also get dragged down by thinking they must make a difference for thousands, or millions of people ... when it's OK and sometimes just as important to make a difference for just a few people

[BiaZarr]

Let me tell you a story. I have depressions. After years of therapy i know how to deal with it, but before that i was suicidal. Once After a bad day i took a Taxi home. I was in a really bad mood and i would have at least hurt myself that evening. But then the taxi driver was really really friendly and managed to cheer me up. He saved me that evening, he made a difference. So just remember: just being friendly might save a life.

[KannikCat]

"Tonight we feast on the labour of centuries." What a brilliant quote. I was watching movie credits recently, and in the middle of the endless list of names for people who made sandwiches for the film crew, I realized, for the first time, that that sandwich person, whom I might ordinarily have termed a 'lowly' sandwich person, was actually a vital contribution to the production of the movie. That they made sandwiches and took care of the feeding of the crew meant the crew didn't have to think about it, didn't have to worry about it, and could therefore do their job with a clearer mind and therefore do their job better. That sandwich person made a difference in the production of that movie, and if that movie touches millions of people worldwide, then that sandwich person made a difference in the lives of millions. That's... remarkable. And I never want to forget that.

Great, great, great video Hank. Thank you so much.

[courtneyy]

Sometimes when I get too wrapped up and overwhelmed in trying to make a difference and do something meaningful, I remember my cats. I rescued two cats from a shelter and they are incredibly happy and loving little creatures. I may try to think of the bigger things that I want to change in the world, but to my cats what I did for them is literally their entire world. Giving them food and toys and a place to sleep is literally everything they've ever known, and so to them I've made a huge difference even though it seems small to me. I try to find my meaning in little things like this, and even if I don't ever do some huge world-changing thing, I've at least changed the lives of two fuzzy kitties who are now sleeping in my lap.

[AlanmanAaron]

This is the Vlogbrothers i signed up for

[oliviamacarthur]

I'm an optician. Its not a flashy job, I won't get famous for it, I never built the technology I use or even invent the glasses, that was a work in progress for hundreds of years . But I find meaning when a child puts on their first pair of glasses and can see the world in a clarity they never thought possible. This opens up many opportunities for the child and I've hoped that I have made impact so that they will do something with their now clear eyesight.

[cyanmanta]

Hank just had an Egoraptor moment.

"MARK ZUCKERBERG!"

[JoshJepson]

Wow, this is a really powerful video.

[HeyItsCoates]

Just found this on the Trending section, I will say that I have, indeed, mashed that Subscribe button. More Hank Green is always quantitatively better than less Hank Green.

[Fawkes]

"Tonight we feast on the labour of centuries." Awesome line

[SarahsLifeAwkwardly]

Transcript of hard hitting point in this video:

Because in the end we matter because we make life better for people around us and also for people in the future. The story of humanity is not a story of a few people who had huge gigantic effects on the world. That's only the story we hear because it's an easy story to tell. Caring for ourselves and other people is the only thing that has ever mattered to the future of our species. And sometimes even that care is very difficult, but other times it won't be, and that, even when I've had really dark times in my life, is the one thing that I've tried to be sure about.

#inspiration

[NotTotallyHopeless]

I think that making a positive impact on people around me is what's most important. I work as a social worker type person and help kids who have had a lot of issues in life. And you can't solve them or fix them but you can try to make things better. And I was sitting with this little girl who was about 10. Her parents neglected her, she was moving to foster care, and she had seen friends of hers die in a war. So she and I were sitting, eating pb&j sandwiches and she said "how do you do what you do?" and I asked her what she meant. She said "How did you get to do this job and do stuff like this for kids like me? I want to do it too but I don't know how." And that was honestly one of the most meaningful moments of my life. More so than any graduation or sale raise or even boyfriend / girlfriend could ever be. And so I told her she had to finish highschool and college and then take a master's class in sandwich making.

[richardbold]

Fuck. You have know idea how much I needed to hear this words in the past 4 years.
It's in moments like these I'm glad internet has allowed us to connect in such a powerful and fast way.

[facebren]

I struggled with this for a little while whilst picking a career (it was a process). I eventually came to terms with the fact that I didn't have to do anything great. I wanted to extract every last bit of potential from me and become some sort of scientist or revolutionary which fixed one of the big problems of the world, because I believe I can so I believe I should. But I realized this is true of many people. And maybe I *can't* actually be that person, even if just because of chance. So I figured that all I had to do was live the best possible with what is given to me. I can push for more, but I don't have to go to the end of the world just trying (terrible idea for mental health, read: stress levels). So, I can just do good in my small space, and if I get the opportunity to impact more, I will. But it is not healthy to think that I *have* to impact a ton of people to matter.

[DrivingOnWires]

Can we get "Tonight we Feast on the Labor of Centuries" on a shirt?

[Falcondances]

Hank, Lewis Carroll said what you're saying now in a more writer-ish sorta way

“One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others.”
-Lewis Carroll

[nadzmoc]

i think this video just changed my life

[raggedy]

Albert Einstein wrote in his essay “The World as I See It, ”
"How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...”