When someone changes the way I think and the way I look at life, I often feel numbed by the words they shared with me. I need time to digest the things I’ve heard so it doesn’t become just another speech or lecture. When listening to Platon Antoniou, a world renowned photographer, I couldn’t help but be amazed by his lifestyle and ideology.

Platon, named only by his first name, came to the San Joaquin Valley Town Hall to share with an audience about his pictures and profession in photography, Nov. 14. I had the pleasure not only to listen to his lecture, but to have a more personal question and answer with him beforehand and eat lunch at the head table alongside him.

At first impression, I loved him because of his accent and his humble demeanor. Then, once he began to talk I became intoxicated with his stories and passion. In just the two hours I spent in the same building as him, Platon became someone I knew and could relate to instantly. First off, he became a photographer because, as he puts it, “he simply wasn’t good at anything else.” Like me, Platon is dyslexic so reading and writing are extremely difficult for him to do. He admits, he has never written an email and he just recently learned to send a text message.

Platon shared story after story about his faults and insecurities while assuring his audience that these things were not disadvantages, but merely the things that made each of us our own person. Platon only reiterated what my mentors have been trying to tell me my entire life, that being human involves faults; we couldn’t be human without them.

Listening to someone who has met and photographed more political leaders than anyone else, was a surreal experience. The people I learned about in history books were projected onto a giant screen that revealed their human nature. Their humaness which makes them just as susceptible to mistakes as I am.

Platon has taken innumerable photos of political representatives, community leaders and ordinary people who showed extreme strength and power. His knowledge of the world is immense and powerful, and it is evident in the few words that he was able to share with us.

His photographs were beautiful, not necessarily because of the people, but because of the extreme realistic qualities that each photograph exposed. His portrait of Michelle Obama took my breath away, while the picture of Russian Premier Vladimir Putin gave me chills. It is absolutely amazing how each picture, and I mean every single one, reveals the humanness in each person and their personality in just one single shot.

As an aspiring photographer, Platon has become my idol. He strives, and succeeds, at telling stories and capturing moments in photographs that will last a lifetime or more. His love for telling the lives of people is truly inspiring and I hope to have that much passion one day.

In the short hours that I spent with Platon, I learned a tremendous amount about why my passion is journalism. I learned that the core of my goals to become a journalist stems from the need to tell other peoples’ stories. The purpose of my passion is to understand and help others understand the human condition. For my stories, pictures or videos to aid in revealing the likeness of all humans.

My outlook on disabilities has been changed, because as he said, “disabilities make us who we are.” He reiterated that the more we hide our true selves, the more fake we become. No one can ever become another person, but instead they will be a second-rate version of someone else. Platon told us that he would rather be the best Platon he could be, flaws and all, then attempt to be someone else.

This hit home for me, and a lot of teenagers, because the world is constantly telling us to change our personalities, appearance and habits to please other people. Now, I know that the things that society deems as mistakes make me who I am, they make me human and that is why I am the way I am.

Listening to and meeting Platon was one of the most interesting and fulfilling lectures I’ve ever attended. I learned more in those few hours than in the years my parents, teachers and friends have been trying to tell me the same things.

For more opinions, read the Nov. 16 article EDITORIAL: Balance in tolerance.