Salisbury High School hosted a TEDx event at the school recently where 10 students presented on this year's theme, "redefining reality." The event was coordinated by teacher Kelly Wetherhold.

TED, which stands for technology, education and design began in 1984 with two annual conferences in California. Today, it represents a non-profit organization dedicated to "Ideas Worth Spreading."

A TEDxYouthDay is held every year where high school students around the world hold TED events and post them on the Internet. Events share a common vision: inspiring curiosity, igniting new ideas and empowering young leaders.

Salisbury is the first school in the area participating in this event.

This year's presenters included Jacob Glenister, Makenna Lenover, Daniel Walters, Collin Moyer, Alexus Baraket, Leandra Roelker, Carolyn Boulay, Laura Albright, Dane Galbraith and Hali Letlow. Each student was given six minutes to present a topic of their choosing.

Walters quoted Socrates who said, "The unexamined life is not worth living" and encouraged the audience to steer away from saying, "We've always done it this way." Walters suggested the audience members challenge themselves, open their minds and re-evaluate their beliefs.

Baraket posed the question, "What if being strange was the new norm?" and asked "what if being weird is just being different and unique?" Baraket said often the most successful people are just being creative and original. She suggested people be more open-minded.

Galbraith talked about an inspiration chalkboard wall he created at the high school as a challenged-based learning project. Galbraith said when doing research, he found no school in Pennsylvania with such a wall and SHS is now the first to have a wall where students, teachers and visitors can share their goals and dreams. Galbraith said statistics show if you write your goals and dreams down, you are more apt to follow-through. He said walking past the wall reminds the students of what they hope to accomplish.

"You should just be yourself and accept who you truly are," Boulay said. This was Boulay's second year of speaking at TEDXSalisburyHighSchool and she chose the topic of "What We Hide" suggesting "being truthful about yourself and others allows you to be truthful to yourself."

Lenover presented on "Humanism: The Band-Aid of Feminism" quoting author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who was born in Nigeria in 1977. She talked about a humanist as one who advocates for the universal human welfare and the comparison girls make to those "flawless" celebrities such as Beyonce rather than an advocate for human welfare.

Glenister talked about redefining ethics. He talked about independence, unity of cause and spirit and meritocracy including the elimination of sexism discrimination, elimination of biases and the abandonment of how we view qualifications. "We need to integrate these values into our society and focus on achievements," Glenister said.

Albright suggested, "What you do, matters." She said what really matters seems to have been lost. "How do we put a smile on our soul? How many of us are truly happy?" Albright asked. She defined a hero as one who selflessly strives to better the lives of others." She said her generation was raised to be heroes. Albright said lending a hand makes a difference and what you do matters. "Make today someone's best day; step up and put a smile on someone's soul."

Letlow asked the audience "have you considered your hopes, dreams and aspirations?" She asked if in our society we are building robots or are we building thinkers? "Those who imagine are the great innovators of our world," Letlow said. "When will our society recognize the value of uninhibited thought?"

Roelker pondered the various disorders students and adults are being diagnosed with and believes health care has gone from underdiagnosing to overdiagnosing. Roelker said one in 10 people is diagnosed with depression and 11 percent of Americans on antidepressants are treating their symptoms not their problems. "Let go of the pills, anxiety and depression so we can see how easy it is to reach out and grab success."

Moyer believes we should change the way our society shares their lives through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, saying 38.1 percent of the population is connected to the Internet. Eighteen percent or 1.3 billion people are on Facebook with Moyer wondering if there will be five billion people on Facebook by the year 2030. Moyer said we are using Facebook incorrectly, getting caught up in other people's business. "Stop worrying about what other people are saying and thinking; be proud of yourself and redefine the realities of social media."

All talks can be seen by visiting www.tedxsalisburyhighschool.com/media-2014.