( CNN ) -- `` To This Day '' had a very small beginning . The poem itself was written in 2009 after rereading a series of notebooks I had written in as a child . I 'm fortunate enough to have a grandmother who never throws anything away , and one day , she returned a series of journals I had kept . I did n't pay any attention to them at first . I wondered what possible value could come from revisiting what I had already managed to survive . One day , out of boredom , I picked up a journal and began reading it . I was amazed to discover that in midst of all the darkness surrounding my childhood , there was a still a young boy with a sense of humor . After quickly consuming all of the other texts , I realized that I had been completely neglecting a large chapter of my life simply because I wanted to be done with the pain that I had associated with it . Watch Shane Koyczan 's TED Talk . I wrote a series of pieces , all exploring my early life , and was not surprised to find that so many people were relating to the material . There was a tremendous sense of agony as I prepared to perform the poems for the first time . I remember wondering why I was willfully about to put myself through these experiences again . It has been such a rewarding journey to rediscover a part of myself that I thought I had long discarded . My band , Shane Koyczan and the Short Story Long , ended up rerecording `` To This Day '' for our 2011 album Remembrance Year . The poem quickly became a requested piece from our catalog at live performances , and each time there seemed to be a special silence from the audience . Fans have often remarked that we were telling their story back to them with that piece . I get a lot of mail regarding poems that I 've written , but the letters I get in response to this piece are easily the most heartrending . There are people in the world whose endurance staggers me . There are stories that test our hearts . They stretch us out into empathy , and all we can do is feel for these strangers who in an instant feel like family . In 2012 , I lent my voice to a project developed by Giant Ant studio for the Dalai Lama Center and their Educate the Heart campaign . The team at Giant Ant were great work partners , and they offered to lend me their services for a project down the road . It did n't take long to pick a project : `` To This Day '' was a piece I was wanting to do something special with for a long time . Giant Ant put together an animated video call out to other animators and the response we got was overwhelming . The team did an incredible job of threading the animations together to create the finished video . Language fails me in my gratitude for everyone who helped bring this project to life . From `` To This Day '' : . ... if you ca n't see anything beautiful about yourself . get a better mirror . look a little closer . stare a little longer . because there 's something inside you . that made you keep trying . despite everyone who told you to quit . you built a cast around your broken heart . and signed it yourself . you signed it . `` they were wrong '' because maybe you did n't belong to a group or a click . maybe they decided to pick you last for basketball or everything . maybe you used to bring bruises and broken teeth . to show and tell but never told . because how can you hold your ground . if everyone around you wants to bury you beneath it . you have to believe that they were wrong . they have to be wrong . why else would we still be here ? we grew up learning to cheer on the underdog . because we see ourselves in them . we stem from a root planted in the belief . that we are not what we were called . we are not abandoned cars stalled out and sitting empty on a highway . and if in some way we are . do n't worry . we only got out to walk and get gas . we are graduating members from the class of . f -- - off we made it . not the faded echoes of voices crying out . names will never hurt me . of course . they did . but our lives will only ever always . continue to be . a balancing act . that has less to do with pain . and more to do with beauty ... The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Shane Koyczan .
Spoken word poet Shane Koyczan rediscovered his childhood journal . In the darkness of his childhood , he retained a sense of humor . His poem has been viewed more than 8 million times on YouTube . Koyczan : `` If you ca n't see anything beautiful about yourself , get a better mirror ''