Emily+Z+Final+AmEx+2013+Speech

=Perspective=

Last weekend my friends found out that I had never been up to the cross here in Ventura before. So predictably, that was the very next thing we did. I knew what to expect, considering my instagram is always blowing up with pictures of friends at the cross, but it was so different in person. When gazing out at the view, I could overlook the whole city of Ventura, buildings that seemed so enormous before, were now puny. I could see the harbor, and how it connected to the vast ocean that seemed as if it went on forever. My Birdseye view of the streets allowed me to watch as the various cars winded through the city in what seemed like slow motion. But the point is, my perspective of Ventura had completely changed. I could see the entire city in one view; I could see the whole picture.

So you guys all remember May 10,2013 right? Well I would like to flashback to that very day. So I had just gotten dropped off at home by one of my friends after the grueling AP English Exam. I stumbled to the front door brain dead, looking forward to go into hibernation mode. I opened the door to find my mother standing right there. Her first words were, your sister crashed your truck. My jaw dropped, my head turned, and my overtired eyes pierce into my sister. She had been home from college for only 6 days and she had already crashed my car that I so kindly let her borrow. That was the last thing I wanted to hear. I stumbled up to my room in my unstable condition reminding myself that my cousins were about to arrive any minute. That was the one thing I had been looking forward to after my AP test. I came downstairs a few minutes later to find my mother again who told me that one of my cousins had to have an emergency appendicitis and that none of my cousins were coming any more. My world was over.

Now you may be looking at me saying wow Emily, a bit over dramatic? Well yes, now looking back on that weekend, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. But even though, on that Friday, I knew my car would eventually be repaired, and that my cousins would plan another trip, I still was livid at the situation. I knew the bigger perspective, but yet I couldn’t accept it, so I went on wasting so much time and energy simply being furious and irritated. We all over react to situations at the moment when it seems like our “world is over”. But that is because we are not always in the right mindset, with the right perspective. I’m sure we have all gotten worked up over trivial everyday things that in the long run, don’t matter. Yes, there are serious tragedies in life that should be given the proper attention but most of the things that consume our time are frivolous matters that are in retrospect, insignificant. Think about it, if our perspective changed, and we did not get so worked up about the little things, imagine how much better we would treat our fellow human beings. Our whole human nature would change. We would be kinder, more understanding, and even more content with life itself.

The definition of perspective reads “the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance” When considering the definition of perspective, my mind immediately went to middle schoolers. A group of awkward 12-14 year olds who can’t think past tomorrow, and have the hardest time putting things into perspective. Stereotypically middle schoolers spend so much energy dramatizing and over reacting to well pretty much everything. Worried about how their gym shorts look and trying to roll them as many times as possible. The number of twitter followers you can conjure up dictates your popularity, and the things most on their minds are things such as “So and so didn’t ask me to go to the bathroom with her.” How could she? Or I can’t believe he is “going out” with her. Remember those days? Such things are so pointless, so why waste time worrying?

I know I spent most of my middle school years worrying over things that really don’t matter. Think of how many precious middle school lives could have been saved if only they could put things into perspective and see the bigger picture. I guess part of that process is understanding the rest of the world and where you stand in it. Having an archaic Iphone 3 doesn’t look so bad when you put it in perspective that in many third world countries, owning a mobile device that can communicates with other people would be a miracle. Here in America, we are so snobby. And we don’t appreciate what we have. So many of our daily “first world problems” are simply petty.

Bringing out my science side, the scienctist bohr, you may know him as the creator of the atom bohr model said //"Isolated material particles are abstractions, their properties being definable and observable only through their interactions with other systems". //There is simply no other way to define the properties of an object other than by how it relates to the rest of the universe. If we are able to see how we relate to the rest of the universe, in other words, putting our situation into perspective with the world that surrounds us, and even our future, our outlook on life will dramatically change, and we will spend less time worrying and more time enjoying. I want to grow up in an America were we are able to put things into perspective.

=Cite Your Sources=