Alexis+St.+G’s+Final+AmEx+Speech+2016


 * Title of Speech **


 * Text of Speech **

As I sat listening to each of your speeches, eloquently written and so thought out and committed to the subject, I just couldn’t help but gravitate towards the more personal conversation like ones. So I think I just wanna take this time to maybe let you guys in on the world that i dont want to live in but try to live in, not because it benefits me, but for the effect I see in other people. I was really stumped on what to write about as everyone says, so upon scraping handfuls of rough drafts, I gave up and just asked some close friends. “What is very ‘me’ to take a stance on”. To you all who don’t know me well, I’m very aware of how I might come off from the outside, probably a bit cold and too honest in my expressions but it’s not really how I am as a person. The response I got from the original question of what I might take a stance on, got me “The things you give, they are so thoughtful and creative. You spend so much time on people. You give all that you have and it is noticed- by me atleast”. She then referred back to the Relay for Life event that we did mid-May as a group of girls on a team that I got together. I realized that the subject of my speech was the focus on allowing selflessness to come into your life. Leading up to the event, we fundraised and got ready, making lists of what we would need to prepare for the 24 hour Relay. It kind of became a competition, egging each other on for how much money we could raise in such a short notice period of time in which we signed up. For minors it is a mandatory goal to raise $100 to be able to spend the night at the event so at first it was for personal benefit to fundraise as self centered as that might seem. But soon I noticed multiple friends raising their goals, wanting to collect more and more donation money, time and effort spent that was technically unnecessary if you viewed the $100 goal as an end all type of stopping point to cut your workload down. Soon I saw our teams achievements racking far past the $100 goal for each of us. As proud as I was of the girls on my team, I didn’t realize how it would really impact me since i was just trying to hustle and collect all the Day Of Event booth props and decorations that we would set up around the track. In a last attempt to find a pop up table, I asked my Nonna who had battled breast cancer when I was a little kid and won, as a last resort not wanting to bug her and stopped by her house to pick it up. This was my first year leading a team like this and kept me in a bit of a haze just trying to constantly be aware of my to do list. As I was picking up the table she asked who was on my team and how we were doing up until now. It came so easily out of my mouth saying we had raised over $1000 which i was of course proud of but didnt occur to me how much it really meant to her, She looked at me and stumbled on her words, simply saying, “Thats great Lexi”. She gave me a traditional italian grandmothers hug and wrapped under me, for her only being about 5’3”. If that. She smiled with her eyes and looked away. Day come of the event and she visits for the first Survivor lap of the Relay. She does her lap and I walk another with her and as we pass one of the booths, specifically for Survivors they ask her if she would sign this surfboard so they could have like a comemeration. I loiter around glancing at what she’s writing and process that she writes, 10 years strong in remission, and for some reason, that was what pulled the knot at my throat. I walked away from the booth as my eyes watered and suddenly washed over me how blessed I still am able to have fundamental parts of my family, even though other parts might not be with me anymore. So quickly in my mind a switch happened and i realized that none of it was the competition, or for the leadership but because your mom scribbling out a check the day of for $100 because you didnt want to chalk out the effort and your dignity asking for donations...that check doesnt mean anything. It hush money so you can stay on the team. You give up your pride. You say forget it, the cause is way above me and the cause isnt about me, its about families who have gotten to live and celebrate birthdays, and holidays and major steps in their life because some one took the time out of the world that revolves around themselves and focused on how to help someone else. Making them feel untouchable just for a day. So as we wrapped up the ceremonies and counted out our teams total raised donations, which i actually just checked as im writing this, and is $1403.95. I know this whole thing basically revolvedd around Relay for life but i dont want you to think to be able to truly care about people you have to volunteer for some community service event. Because the truth is some people can never grasp that you just have to remove yourself from a situation and think about what you can do to help someone when theyre on their last thread, just hanging on. I just want to live in a world where honesty is more valued than personal gain, and where caring back for someone or something means more than some half ass attempt to act like you were ever interested.
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