And every day I wake up

with the same first thought on my mind.

Let's put on this uniform and go to my battle station.

I dreamt every night that I was still in the Royal Dutch Navy

although it had been over 15 years that I left the Navy as a telegrapher.

So why did this period in time seem so important to me?

And then I realized the Navy was the place where I was born again.

And I'll tell you why.

Do you remember as a child,

the only thing you really, really wanted

was to make your parents proud of you?

Of course, I had the same drive,

except I grew up in a family with a lot of violence and alcohol.

And nothing I did seemed right.

I remember this time in high school,

I wrote a winning paper on a Dutch minesweeper

and I received a coat of arms badge which my father hang on the wall.

In my recollection, the only time he was really proud of me.

So, when I was 18 years old, I decided to join the Navy.

After my first week at naval base in Den Helder,

I returned home, proudly, with two duffel bags wrapped around me.

My father, drunk as usual, came looking for me.

This night, as many nights before, it always ended into a fight.

And in an attempt to hit me,

my father fell down the stairs and lost consciousness.

And then I realized,

nothing I could ever do would win me his appreciation.

So I took my clothes, filled up my duffel bags,

and left home to never come back again.

In the Navy, I finally found what I needed.

I was finally out of the "fight or flight" mode.

I found new life values

like connection, friendship,

responsibility, but most of all freedom.

And can you imagine shipping on a mission for six months

knowing you would finally be left alone?

I'm a little bit emotional.

What I found in the Navy, I never found again in the civilian world.

After 15 years I wanted to return.

This time, the only chance for me was as a humanistic counselor.

So I applied to the university for Humanistic Studies.

And it was here, for the first time in my life,

I had to reflect on my own history.

Something I kept inside for all these years,

feeling like a stone on my chest,

affecting my daily reality for years and years.

The period in time was very important to me and then I realized

that only by telling your story

you can transform the shape of the emotion which has been locked inside for too long.

By telling your short story you can make it a new shape,

one you can live with more easily.

It was two years ago, an opportunity came to me.

It was an opportunity where I can help other people to tell their own stories,

to bring their own stories into the light.

In essence, it's about the stories of soldiers,

and their stories are transformed by musicians for everyone to hear.

And as the philosopher Alain de Botton says:

"Art is our new religion.

Through arts we can recognize ourselves and each other.

So our feelings of sorrow can meet each other and be less grieved together."

And in this "Your Song" project, every new encounter we had

we set new values, and they melted together on this new horizon.

Seven stories were brought onto the surface,

bonded together by this language called music,

this universal language.

The "Your Song" project became a documentary,

and it became a live concert.

The stories of the soldiers were performed in their preferred music genre,

from rock to classical music, from soul to rap.

The thing is what I said before:

if you have life stories and keep them inside, they get locked,

and it's very important to bring the stories outside of yourself

because - that's the thing that happened in the "Your Song" project -

the stories told varied from troops in contact and becoming brothers in arms

to very personal dilemmas

which in general, fall harder on soldiers than they do on civilians.

Because it's exactly those men and women who fight for freedom with high values,

who keep their stories locked inside and prison themselves for too long

like I did, and like Robert Lichtenfeld did.

And Robert, he looks like a typical Dutch guy.

He grew up in a family of diplomats,

and he grew up in Ghana, Egypt, and Germany.

When Robert was 12 years old, his parents got divorced.

His father travels to Denmark,

and he travels with his mother back to Holland.

And 12 years old he says to himself, "Somebody has to be the man,

and if my dad isn't here, I will take this role."

During the pre-training to get into the military,

Robert hears that his father has cancer.

At first it seems stable, but then, he gets a call that his father is dying.

He travels to Denmark,

and in his "Don't talk, just do" mentality,

he starts to arrange everything.

His father is dying, and his own need doesn't come into it.

After his father's death, he realizes, he can't go on like this.

And finally starts talking about his emotions.

Now, and this is his most important lesson,

he can talk about his emotions, if he needs to.

And this takes a new kind of hero.

(Piano music)

♪ There's nothing I can do ♪

♪ Is what we tell ourselves ♪

♪ I am just one girl ♪

♪ And I'm more than just a little scared ♪

♪ Why is it up to me ♪

♪ To go and make a change? ♪

♪ I've got nothing in my pocket ♪

♪ But the only one who cares ♪

♪ I'm moving higher, faster, free ♪

♪ Half the world's belly's empty ♪

♪ How can that be? ♪

♪ When I've got all I need ♪

♪ Well, you know, everybody wants to be a hero ♪

♪ But no one can stand to watch a grown man cry ♪

♪ No ♪

♪ Pretending not to see ♪

♪ 'Cause it's so cold ♪

♪ and we're already tired ♪

♪ In our own lives ♪

(Piano Music)

♪ I love the dreams, you know ♪

♪ Pretty much anything that grows ♪

♪ And it won't leave me alone ♪

♪ Oh, I've got to do something ♪

♪ I've got to do something ♪

♪ Moving higher and faster, free ♪

♪ Half the world's belly's empty ♪

♪ How can that be? ♪

♪ When I've got all I need ♪

♪ You know, everybody wants to be a hero ♪

♪ No one can stand to watch a grown man cry ♪

♪ No ♪

♪ Pretending not to see ♪

♪ ' Cause it's so cold ♪

♪ And we're already tired ♪

♪ in our own lives.♪

♪ Everybody wants to be a hero ♪

(Applause)