Building the future. | Latoya Anne Irumba | TEDxAga Khan HS Kampala Youth

In this TEDx talk, Latoya Anne Irumba addresses both students and parents about personal agency in shaping one's future, challenging the notion that external forces control destiny. She begins by posing a fundamental question: whether the future is something within individual control or determined by outside forces.

Irumba then presents a series of historical examples to demonstrate that major innovations and changes have consistently faced resistance. She discusses Galileo Galilei, who was imprisoned for discovering that the Earth revolves around the sun—a fact we now accept as scientific truth. She references Steve Jobs, who revolutionized technology despite failing to complete university and starting Apple in his parents' garage. Emmy Noether is highlighted as a Jewish woman in early 1900s Germany who faced systemic barriers as a woman and Jewish person, yet made fundamental contributions to physics through the conservation of energy theorem. Nelson Mandela is cited for his 27-year imprisonment and subsequent rejection of conditional release that would have required him to abandon activism. Mozart serves as an example of an artist who rejected court patronage to pursue freelance work, which ultimately resulted in his most celebrated compositions.

Irumba then shares her personal story as the core message of the talk. Four years prior, she attempted to learn guitar despite being blind and having severe vision impairment. She describes the initial difficulties—physical pain and struggling to produce desired sounds—but found it exciting when she mastered her first song. She then auditioned for her school orchestra's guitar section, facing the significant barrier that orchestral musicians must read sheet music, which she cannot do due to her blindness. Over the following years, she practiced daily, sought help from teachers and peers, and developed the skill of playing by ear—listening to notes and reproducing them accurately. Despite acknowledging that she still sometimes fails at this skill, she has remained in the orchestra for over three years, performing 8-9 concerts.

Irumba concludes that building the future one wants requires breaking the barriers that stand in the way today, using the metaphor that even old buildings must be demolished to make way for new ones.