Julia+F’s+Final+AmEx+Speech+2017

As a child I was obsessed with two movies: High School Musical and Grease. I dreamed of the day I would go to school and sing and dance down the hallways, share a duet with Troy Bolton in the basketball courts, dance with Danny Zuko down the crazy carnival course, and have the time of my life. You can imagine my disappointment when I actually got to high school and it was nothing like the movies.

As high school progressed I began to wonder, why couldn’t high school be more like the musicals? Granted, if all we ever did was sing and dance we wouldn’t actually learn much (and as much as we hate to admit it, that really is what school’s for). But imagine if every once in awhile we did take a break from our crazy lives to just sing and dance down the halls?

Here at Foothill, we like to compete in two main ways: who is the best academically and who is the worst mentally. Many compete for higher GPAs, better test scores, a better Renaissance level. Granted, it’s good to strive for the best, but not to the point where you’re disappointed if you got a 93% on your essay, rather than the class average of 96%. The amount of pressure everyone puts on themselves is incredible; how everyone manages to feel any sort of happiness when they constantly feel like a failure is a mystery to me.

Possibly the more common form of competition is the everlasting question of “who feels the worst about their lives?” We constantly play a game of who got the least sleep, who has more on their plate to juggle, who has the worst mental health. We are so focused on being overloaded and overstressed that we forget to have fun. Yes, there are the occasional moments where us students aren’t busy with homework, jobs, sports, Youth and Government, Journalism, ASB work, youth groups, or any other sort of extracurricular. However, most of us spend that sliver of free time catching up on all the sleep we lost. And if we do decide to have fun with friends instead, we still are only having a good time for a few hours.

Let’s say you worked super hard all week, then spent 5 hours with friends on a Friday night, then spent the rest of the weekend with sports, homework, or some other form of required business. That means out of the 168 hours in the week, you spent 5 having leisurely fun. That means you only spent approximately 3% of your week having fun. 3% is not enough. It’s no wonder so many of us feel exhausted, stressed, sad, unmotivated.

Most people are busiest during school, and think that summer is the time where they can have fun. Summer this year is roughly 9 weeks. If you add those 9 weeks with the four additional weeks of fall, winter, and spring break, that gives a total of 13 weeks. There are 52 weeks in the year. That means you are only stress free and having fun for a maximum of 25% of the year. If we are only having fun for a quarter of the year, something needs to change.

I am an all or nothing kinda gal, but I’m working on changing. Being an extremist who either studies 12 hours or not at all, either eats 5 brownies or no brownies, either has a spotless room or one where you can’t see the floor, creates a completely unbalanced life. I completely fall into the previous ratios; I probably only have a stress free feeling for a quarter of the year, and that is not how I wanted to be as a kid. I wanted to be constantly having fun, constantly being happy. I know I’m not alone in this desire, and I know I’m not alone in the unbalanced lifestyle.

So here’s my proposal; we start implementing little snippets of fun in our life. Some of the best moments and greatest memories are not from weeks of planning, but from spontaneous outbursts. We don’t need to go crazy, throwing the biggest parties, planning the greatest adventures. When you build something up so much it never quite turns out how you want it to. The random moments are always the best moments in life.

I look back on my life, and some of my favorite memories aren’t the ones that have been planned. Just this past weekend, I performed in a show with the VUSD Show Choir. The performance was fun, but the real memories came from the random fun that occurred after. We went to McConnell’s and basically flash mobbed the place; the owner turned up the music outside and started dancing with us, then gave us free ice cream tokens afterwards. Everyone grew closer that night, all because of a random outburst of dancing and singing; a true musical moment.

We shouldn’t spend every free second of our lives on social media or Netflix; watching other people having fun will not put you in a better mood. When your best friends become Monica, Rachel, Joey, Phoebe, Ross, and Chandler, you know you aren’t spending enough time having fun with your true friends. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that having fun isn’t another thing to check off our to do list; the key to happiness is implementing bursts of fun into your life.

Singing and dancing have proven effective in boosting your mood, as well as both your physical and mental health. Dancing is a stress reducing activity that also requires focus, which can be related to a super energetic form of meditation. Singing lowers cortisol levels and reduces anxiety. You don’t have to be a professional singer or dancer to sing or dance; simply move your feet and lips and boom! You’re doing it!

I get it, it sounds a little ridiculous, but to be honest, I think we need a little ridiculousness in our lives. Why not just sing and dance randomly every once in awhile! Looking back, some of my favorite memories with friends involve belting out tunes in the car, playing Just Dance for hours on end, and trying to learn Olivia’s killer dance moves in my kitchen.

The place labeled as the happiest one on this earth is Disneyland. Now I get it: some may see it as a crowded disaster with long lines, overpriced food, and the true hell on wheels known as strollers. But I see it as that Happy Place it claims to be. When I truly think about it, it’s because of everything they do to make it a magical land; the sweet scents they spray out down mainstreet, the kind workers, the fun rides, and what I believe is most important; the shows. The parades of people singing and dancing with smiles on their faces to the point you can’t help but hum along make all the difference in the world. It makes me want to be one of those people; singing and dancing and making others feel happy.

So since I can’t really work at Disneyland just yet, I want to make the world feel like Disneyland. I want to sing and dance and make others see the world not as a stressful place, but one of happiness and fun.

If dancing and singing really truly are not your thing, I get it. Everybody has different tastes. So find what makes you happy; maybe it’s reading, maybe it’s the beach. But find a way to implement snippets of happiness into your everyday life; rather than having fun for 3% of the week, find ways to randomly add more fun into each and every day.

So yea, I want grow up in an America where life is more like the musicals. Where I’m happy all of the time, not just for a quarter of the year. You can’t avoid stress, but you can find ways to reduce it. So next time you hear a good song, sing along. And if you see me shasse-ing down the hallways, feel free to join in.