“I had spent a lot of time figuring out who I was, shaping myself, creating an identity and I thought that identity was something inside of me that I projected outward and when I was suddenly in a world in which nobody knew me and nobody understood me and all those things, I started to realize that who we are is actually reflected back to us by the people around us, by people who love us.

“You are suddenly in a world where nobody understands why you’re there or what you’re doing or who you are - you suddenly start to ask the same questions.

“So I was basically widdled down to nothing.  I felt like I had no self.  The beauty of that – there’s a lesson there, right?  There’s this lesson – that our connections matter, that how we treat others matters, that it affects their identity directly.  And there’s another lesson there as well.  As I lost myself, I actually found myself broken down to a point where I could learn faster than I’ve ever learned in my life."

-Michael Wesch

The End of Wonder in the Age of Whatever

BYU Speeches