Andrew+C's+Final+AmEx+2015+Speech


 * Live for Yourself **

Here we are. Class of 2016, we made it to the final stretch of our high school careers. I remember walking through those big metal gates at the front of the school my freshman year thinking I had high school all figured out. Come to school, pay attention, pass the test, meet some girls, then graduate. Then I got punched in the face by my junior year. A big, nasty thing it was. We fought long and hard, sure it had me up against the ropes at times and yeah it knocked me down a couple of times, but I never quit. We never quit. We fought back and now we are here in the last seconds of the fight, and we got big, nasty junior year up against the ropes as it tries to block the punches we are throwing at it, but it can’t, it’s too weak. We are winning the fight… Boom. Left hook. Junior year is knocked out and the ref. is counting, 1...2...3… We won, and just like that it’s all over. Our third year of high school is knocked out. It happened a lot faster than we all thought it would didn't it? As I took time to reflect on this year and write this speech I couldn't help but feel that this whole year I was waiting for the punches junior year had to give me and when they came I just sat there and took them. I never attacked the opportunities that were offered to me, I just waited for them to come. And too many times did I find myself living for Fridays and Saturdays. I was not looking forward to Mondays or Wednesdays or any other day of the week except Fridays and Saturdays. I was never excited to get up on a Monday morning. Not just because it was the start of the week but I realized that I hated Mondays so much because I let the people around me ruin it. I let them determine whether my day would be good or bad, instead of me getting up and making the decision that it would be a good day. I was letting that one teacher, that one coach, that one person decide for me whether or not my day would be a good one or not. I realized that, that wasn’t okay. So now I have changed my mentality. Now I decide whether or not my day will be good, because I don’t go to school for that one teacher, I go to school for myself so that I can learn new and awesome ways to do things and I don’t go to practice everyday to please my coach, I go to practice everyday because football is fun to me and I love what I do, I play for me not for the coaches and I don’t live so that I can please that one person I live to please myself and do the things that make me happy. We need to live our own lives, pave our own paths and stop letting what people think of us control the way we live. You were born with a brain, heart, mind, body and soul. They are yours and you may use them however you like. They were given to you for a reason all you need to do is find that reason. I have never been the best at what I do. I remember being picked last in sports amongst my friends and being put second to the smarter kids in school. I always wondered why God never gave me the abilities that these other kids had. At a young age it was burned into me that I was never going to be as talented as the first string kids in sports or as smart as the honor roll kids in school. I believed that I would always have to watch from the side lines. At a young age I let the naysayers and dream killers plant a seed into me. A seed which festered inside of me. A seed that I let grow. I watered it, gave it sunlight and I let it become strong. I gave it meaning and I believed in the seed. I believed and gave life to all those things that people had said to me “You’re fat, ugly, stupid, a second string” and I carry this seed with me to this day. Carrying it with me turning it to a chip on my shoulder, turning me into a bitter person. I know I need to let all those meaningless words go and I work to do that everyday. Everyday I am cutting that plant shorter and shorter. That plant that was once just a small seed inside me is now dying, finally at the end of my junior year I am working up the courage to let go of this resentment towards people. Because I know once I let go of all this hate I will be a better person for it. Whatever you do in life, whatever your dreams and aspirations are you must not let anything or anybody distract you from what you’re chasing. Dream killers will come in the form of bad attitude, in the form of drugs, in the form of they think they know it all. It’ll stop a dream in a heartbeat. But you can’t let that bother you, you have to stay the course and keep pushing. You have to keep being yourself and stay true throughout the process. In the america I want to grow old in I want people to live for themselves and for the moment because at the end of our lives when we are lying on our deathbeds no one ever thinks “I’m so glad I let them make that decision for me. I’m so happy that I listened to them my whole life. I’m so glad I let them live my life for me.” I remember something Mrs. Kindred had said once “You need to learn to enjoy everyday of your life, and stop living for Fridays. You have a lot of Mondays ahead of you, learn to love them.” I took this to heart and I am slowly learning to love Mondays. I want people to enjoy the moment and stop living for what’s ahead because what we do today determines what happens to us in our future. Don’t live for the person next to you, don’t live for your mom or your dad, don’t live for your boyfriend or girlfriend. Live for you and enjoy your life. You’re only blessed with one.