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Pop Culture

School shooting survivor delivers heartbreaking performance on 'America's Got Talent'

She honored her community in a big way.

ava swiss agt, ava swiss singing

A beautiful tribute to those taken too soon.

Sometimes the best part about watching “America’s Got Talent” isn’t seeing extraordinary performances—it’s witnessing extraordinary courage.

In 2022, 18-year-old Ava Swiss displayed both talent and courage with her breathtaking rendition of “Remember” by Lauren Daigle. Swiss’ vocal chops and stage presence were certainly enough to make a lasting impression. But the reason behind her song choice made it all the more impactful.

“I chose this song because back on November 30, my brother and I were a part of the Oxford school shooting,” Swiss told judge Simon Cowell. “We lost four of our students, and seven others were injured, one of which was a teacher.”

In an exclusive interview with People, Swiss shared that she had been close friends with 17-year-old Justin Shilling, one of the four students killed. The trauma of such loss and surviving a harrowing (though sadly, not unimaginable) experience made the thought of going back to school seem impossible.

“It’s been hard. I remember my brother and I, we were talking to each other, and we said, ‘There’s no way we’re ever stepping foot back in the school,’” she told the judges.

The high school senior’s audition had been filmed prior to the recent series of public shootings across America. It’s heartbreaking that these tragedies have become so common, no question.

But as Swiss demonstrates, resilience can be immensely healing. Swiss added that she and her brother had been back at school for about two months … all before singing so powerfully she was met with a standing ovation.

Mandel told her. “The fact that you can break through that, and shine the way you did today, is so inspirational for every human being.”

This was, of course, before receiving a unanimous “yes” to move onto the next round of the competition.

If the resounding praise from all four judges wasn’t enough, fellow students of Oxford High sent a flood of loving comments to the video posted on YouTube as well. One student wrote:

“Hi another student from Oxford high school, this performance will stay on repeat in my head for years to come. It was extraordinary and so beautiful it gave me chills down to the bone. This was something I didn’t know I needed, it made me cry a lot but also gave me a lot of strength. I’m so proud of our community and of Ava for sharing her voice with us and the world and making our healing process a little less rough. Stay strong Oxford.”

It’s not easy to get up on stage and bare your soul, especially after trauma. Swiss’ performance was a big win before she hit a single note.


This article originally appeared on 7.29.22

Nolan Reid / TikTok

There's an old joke slash meme that goes something like this:

"Guys literally only want one thing and it's disgusting."

Its used to imply, obviously, that men are shallow and crude creatures.

TikTok creator and simple-life advocate Nolan Reid, however, has a different idea of what men really want.



Nolan recently made a video about "Little things in life that make men happy."

The hilarious list includes:

  • A fridge full of beer.
  • Drinking said beer in the garage. With your dog. And a good buddy.
  • Finding a cool stick.
  • Kicking a rock.
  • Staring at water.
  • Dropping rocks into said water.

As a fellow man, I would say: Yeah. That pretty much covers it.

It really doesn't take much! Watch Nolan's full video to see the rest, and just appreciate how much joy and satisfaction he gets from these simple thing.

People loved Nolan's list – so much so that they began adding their own ideas of "simple things men love."

The video racked up hundreds of thousands of views across TikTok and Instagram.

One commenter wrote, "He just described my whole personality." Another added, "This guy gets it."

Others chimed in with their own additions to the list, like staring at a fire for hours. Or just peace and quiet.

But most of the nearly 200 comments were just people chiming in to say one thing:

"Hell yeah."

Finally, someone who understands us.

Nolan's ultra-relaxed vision of "masculinity" is honestly so refreshing.

Men on social media are usually bombarded with the Andrew Tates and Jordan Petersons of the world, influencers who constantly berate us to make more money, lose weight and add muscle, sleep with more women, take charge, relentlessly self-improve.

I like Nolan's much chiller idea of masculinity. It reminds me of being a kid, taking pleasure in the simple things, not racing to be anywhere, not trying to impress anyone or prove anything.

Nolan's entire account is a breath of fresh air, an antidote to hustle culture. His videos find joy in:

  • Breaking down cardboard boxes
  • Driving at sunset
  • Going fishing
  • Throwing a frisbee
  • Wearing t-shirts
A daily visit to his page is almost like a meditation. I highly recommend giving him a follow to add a little counterprogramming to your social media feed.

Nolan says in another recent video that he started making TikToks and Instagram reels just for fun, but discovered along the way that he was really passionate about the message.

"I never thought that my simple living and love for little things would resonate with so many of you."

He said he hopes to inspire people to "take a step back and enjoy the good simple things in life."

I suddenly have the urge to go chuck a rock into a river, so I would say: Mission Accomplished!

Plumber reveals why family was mysteriously getting ill from water

There are things you just don't know until you find out the hard way. While most people are taught the basics of housekeeping: sweeping, mopping, washing dishes and doing laundry, etc. everyone isn't taught all. There are inevitably going to be gaps that are left even when scrubbing a home from the tippy top to the bottom.

Some people aren't aware that they need to pull out the dryer to use a special tool to clean the lint from the back or front panel depending on where your lint trap is located. Other's weren't taught to wipe down baseboards when deep cleaning or to soak shower heads in a cleaning agent to remove buildup. It's completely normal to not know everything about living in your own home, and let's be honest, 18 years isn't long enough to ensure all knowledge is being passed down to children.

But one family's housekeeping oversight was the cause of them constantly getting sick and it's something that isn't common knowledge.


James Butler recently shared a video where he explains that his company was called out for a service call for a residence in the city, which was unusual because he normally services well water.

Diy Behold GIF by Amelia Parker & The Parker AndersonsGiphy

"They were insistent that we come out and try to solve their problem. The problem was that people kept getting sick in the house. My first thought was take a vitamin but on further inspection we found the problem," he says before continuing. "See, in your house and pretty much everybody else's house, where the water comes out on your sink, there's something called an aerator. It does a variety of functions from slowing the flow of water to keeping grit out of your water and if you don't clean it, it looks like that."

The screen changes to the backside of a sink aerator filled with stuff that could sear into the back of your eyelids for the rest of your life haunting you every time you close your eyes. It was the aerator that the family's drinking water was passing through that looked like a grab bag of bacterial cultures dipped in micro organisms.


@jamesbutler299 #greenscreen is your house clean...bet you missed this.
♬ nhạc nền - James Butler

If you're appalled at the thought of drinking water filtering through whatever was growing on the back of that aerator, don't you worry, Butler shares what to do, "so if this video was a middle school history test, here's the cheat sheet. Go unscrew the aerator from your sink, soak it in bleach, clean it. I would say do it at least monthly."

People were thoroughly grossed out while also being thankful for the new information they have learned from the app with one person saying, "TikTok has show in me that I need to vacuum the insides of my dryer, never run my bathroom fan and clean my kitchen sink aerator. I have lived a long time and never knew any of this."

Girl Lol GIF by America's Funniest Home VideosGiphy

"Omg I own a cleaning company my house is spotless. I’ve never thought to clean my aerator on the inside," someone else writes.

"I am putting THAT picture on the inside of my kitchen cabinet to remind myself to do it periodically," another shares.

"I'm convinced when it's our time it's our time cause how I'm supposed work, go to the gym, self care, wear sunscreen, take vitamins, drink water, mind my business and now, clean the facet alternator," one person laments.

Mad Kicking And Screaming GIF by MOODMANGiphy

"Showed this to my husband, showed him the bottom our faucet (couldn’t get the aerator out), and pretty much immediately went out to buy another faucet. Better safe than sorry," someone else writes.

Well, now that everyone is thoroughly grossed out and running from room to room ripping out their faucets screaming about aerators, it's not the worst thing. Those little gadgets are fairly inexpensive for those who don't want to clean them every few months and if you didn't know cleaning an aerator was part of housekeeping chores, neither did many of the people who commented.

Karl Eccleston and Fiona Pepper star in "Skwerl."

If you are a native English speaker, it is probably hard to imagine what people who don’t speak the language hear when you are talking. “Skwerl,” a short film by Karl Eccleston and Brian Fairbairn, attempts to demonstrate what English sounds like to people who don’t speak the language.

The film was created in 2011 for Kino Sydney, “a monthly open-mic night for filmmakers” based in Sydney, Australia. Since being posted to YouTube 12 years ago, it has received over 52 million views.


The short film stars Eccleston and Australian actress Fiona Pepper as a couple whose special evening is disrupted when underlying relationship tensions creep up.

Warning: Strong language

Here's a sample of the script:

THE MAN

So I ran to yourk around the wash today.

THE WOMAN

Oh?

THE MAN

Yeah. That doll's areen blunderface. Can berave that mory alpen john. Joo flan by the long blatt call?

THE WOMAN

Yeah. I coon by the mex areen. Oh you bleed that pribadium by the ronfort line today?

The video received some thoughtful reactions in the comments section. The SkyWolfie6655 summed it up perfectly: “As an English speaker, it feels like I SHOULD be understanding this and I'm just not, like I've heard them wrong or something, this is really well done.”

The film also connected with people who learned English as a second language. “Man, that's exactly what I used to hear when I was younger, before learning English properly. This is actually quite nostalgic,” another wrote.

The video also is an excellent example of what people with a disability may hear even if they speak the language. “This is kind of what it feels like to have auditory processing disorder,” HorseFace1044 wrote. “It's super frustrating because you can almost get what the person is saying, but not quite enough to understand what in the world they are talking about.”


This article originally appeared on 8.19.23

Some colorful public restroom doors.

Using the stall in a public restroom is uncomfortable for numerous reasons. There’s the fear that someone will open the door while you are vulnerable. There’s the question of how clean the seats are and the constant worry that someone is lingering outside the door, impatiently waiting for you to finish.

There’s also the considerable fear of someone seeing you using the restroom because of the massive gap between the floor and the bottom of the door. It makes one wonder: why don’t more places have bathroom stalls with longer doors? Unfortunately, a popular TikTok user says they are made that way on purpose.

A TikTok user named MattyPStories shared the big 3 reasons why bathroom doors are so short in a viral TikTok that makes sense but is mildly infuriating.


"You’ve probably wondered at one point or another why bathroom doors don’t go all the way to the ground. But there are actually many logical reasons why they do this,” MattyP opens the video.

@mattypstories

And now you know!🚽#bathroom#facts#themoreyouknow

Reason 1:Emergency concerns

MattyP says the gap in the bottom of the door makes it easier to notice if someone in the stall has had an emergency and needs help. If the door went all the way to the bottom, it’d be hard to notice if someone passed out in the stall. "First off, if there’s ever an emergency, it’d be pretty easy to see what happened and get the person some help,” he says in the video.

Reason 2:Easier to clean

Cleanliness is mission number one for the people who own the stall and it doesn’t take much for a bathroom to quickly become a disgusting mess and a public health hazard if it isn’t cleaned every few hours. So, they are designed to make getting a mop under the bathroom door easy, which means sacrificing some of your privacy. "Secondly, it makes it way easier to clean,” MattyP reveals. “Public bathrooms are used quite often, meaning that they need to be cleaned many times throughout the day, and having the space under the door makes it a lot easier.”

Reason 3:Price

This one should be mildly infuriating. "And finally, it’s a lot cheaper to buy a door that has part of it cut off than the full door itself,” MattyP admits.



One Point Partitions, a company that sells bathroom partitions, added a few more reasons why public bathroom doors don’t go all the way to the floor. A big one is that they are a deterrent to undesirable behavior. “Because people can partially see into a bathroom stall that has a gap at the bottom, this type of partition is a natural deterrent to undesirable behavior, such as someone spray painting the stall with graffiti,” the site reads.

The company adds that seeing people’s feet at the bottom of the door keeps the line moving because people know if a stall is vacant or open. Finally, everyone likes short doors when they are out of toilet paper. “If you’ve ever run out of toilet paper and had to ask the person in the stall next to you for a few squares, then you’re already familiar with one of the leading reasons for bathroom partitions not extending to the floor. If you’d run out of toilet paper in an enclosed stall, you may have been caught with your pants down, at least figurately!” the site reads.

So, when you’re stuck in a public bathroom, now you know why you want to leave there as soon as possible. But if you look on the bright side, that short door helps keep the bathroom clean and is there for you if your stall isn’t well-stocked. It’s probably better to sit in a clean stall with a short door than a dirty bathroom with one that goes floor-to-ceiling.

Family

Kate Winslet shares sage advice for complimenting girls and women are loving it

So many women say they never heard things like this growing up.

Kate Winslet at the Palm Film Festival, 2007

The way we think see ourselves is influenced greatly by those around us, especially during out formative years. The words of our parents and other family members, our friends and teachers, acquaintances and random strangers can have a big impact on our self-image and sense of confidence—for better and for worse.

That's part of why paying others compliments is so powerful. We all know that negative words can stick with us, but kind ones can too. Especially if we pay attention to the way in which we offer kids a compliment, as actress Kate Winslet explained on the How to Fail with Elizabeth Day podcast.


"When we compliment our children, particularly our girls—and any mother who is listening, please remember this," she said. "There is so much negativity that young girls are hearing from the world, just because that’s how the world is, but also because, very sadly, many of them are on social media and are exposed to an unnecessary level of negativity every day of their lives. If we do not tell them that they are beautiful and that we are so proud of who they are, they might not hear it from anyone else. So you have to say it."

"And there’s also a way of saying to your child, 'I love you and you’re amazing,'" she continued. "There’s that, but there’s also, 'Do you know what I love? The way you see the world and the way you dress with so much pride. I just really admire that.' That will land on a teenage girl’s ear much better than 'You look lovely, darling.' That's in one ear and out the other because they expect us to say that and they've heard us say it a million times before. But saying, 'My god, you look so strong and vibrant. Never ever lose the pride you take in how you walk through the world. It's amazing.'"

Winslet's message resonated with so many women, especially those who themselves had not heard compliments like this growing up. Check out these comments:

"When I was a kid, I remember looking in the mirror and crying because I thought I was ugly. Like young, second grade maybe. And my mom was in the room and all she said was stop it. And I really needed to hear kind loving words."

"Oh goodness, I’ve never heard those things my whole life (entirely the opposite!) but I’ll be damned if my little girl (and my son too because that equally matters in such a judgemental world!) ever feels she’s no enough. I’m forever telling her how beautiful she is, how sparkly she shines but also how strong she is, how brave, powerful, kind, funny, loving and magical. I do everything in my power to be body confident around her and so much so I’ve slowly started to love myself a little more too. Words are powerful, actions are powerful. Standing in the mirror telling myself whilst little eyes and ears are watching ‘I love the way my belly wobbles, I’m proud of my body because it grew my precious children’ is hopefully what they will remember as the grow and never once wonder if they should be more or less, or anything other than their perfectly imperfect self. 💕"

"Not me literally crying because my mom has NEVER said any of these things to me.."

"Me too 💕💕 I don't plan on having kids but I do plan on telling all my friends future kids this as much as I can and I'm so excited for that ❤️"

"Same girl. In fact I was told I was a waste of fresh air and would never be anything. I tell my 6yo at least 5 times a day how amazing and beautiful she is, and how proud I am of her. She is literally healing my heart 🥰💜"

"Aame. Not even the, 'you look lovely darling' part."

"Me neither..I just got negative messages from my mum as a child. A part of me still thinks Im not pretty or good enough. But you know what, I'm working hard to remind my daughter every single day that she is strong, smart, beautiful, wise, intelligent...In a certain way Im healing too my inner child at the same time I give her a high confidence."

"Growing up in the 80s I was never told this either and never thought of myself as pretty or special . Now that I have children and tell them how proud I am of them and how beautiful/handsome they are , I realise how bad my self esteem is / was. I was loved but didn’t get that type of validation. So now I am making sure my children know how beautiful and special they are."

As much as girls get a particularly heaving helping of negativity from society, as some pointed out, boys need to hear these kinds of compliments as well.

"Say it all to the boys too, please!!"

"Agree actually and I don’t have sons I have two girls. But I think this massively applies to boys also."

"I love Love love this woman. I am a mum of a daughter and two boys. I always notice when my daughter walks in the room ready for a compliment, my sons are also waiting for the compliment but without being so obvious and when they get it, their faces light up. So let’s say it to boys and girls. How proud they make us just because they have been born even or How beautiful they are because their pureness shines through from their little hearts. Even during the temper tantrums and stroppy teenage years 🙌❤️"

"Boys can be very sensitive, society has just dictated that they must have a tougher exterior. I am a Mum of two boys and feel that this is an equally important message for boys and girls - all kids."

"Was going to say the same thing. I have 2 boys and they need this just as much as my daughter does."

It's true. We all perk up a bit when we receive a compliment, especially when it reflects something specific about our character and not just something surface or generic. Kate Winslet's advice is a good reminder of how to compliment anyone of any age or gender effectively.