Beyond the Comfort Zone | Abdulrahman Boksmati | TEDxThamer Intl Schools Youth

The speaker begins with an imagination exercise, asking the audience to picture life on a familiar island, like the North Sentinel Island, home to the uncontacted Sentinelese tribe for 60,000 years. This tribe actively resists contact, even throwing spears at helicopters. The Indian government protects their isolation, forbidding visits. This contrasts with figures like Tariq ibn Ziyad, who ventured beyond shores to establish great civilizations. The speaker, Abdulrahman Balsomati, an alumnus of Thamer International School, shares his own journey of "venturing beyond his shore." After studying electronic and electrical engineering at University College London and working as a control engineer and data scientist at Saudi Aramco, his pivotal moment came in his final year of university. He decided to pursue open water swimming, searching for top achievements online. This led him to the world of challenging swims, where touching a boat is forbidden. He recounts completing the Catalina Island to Los Angeles swim, the English Channel in 2021, the 20 Bridges with his brother Gaith in 2024, and the Catalina Channel in 2025 in 13 hours and 31 minutes. This made him the first Arab to swim the Triple Crown. He also shares an experience during a year abroad at Georgia Tech, where he unexpectedly joined and won a hackathon. Though his contribution wasn't technical, his role in forming and pitching the idea proved invaluable, providing knowledge he deeply valued, regardless of the win. He concludes by encouraging the audience to go "beyond their shore" to achieve the impossible, believing they will reach the best outcome. He advises them to "stay curious, stay moving, stay open."