Spencer+W’s+Final+AmEx+2015+Speech

Let me just start off by saying that this world we live in is a beautiful place, full of amazing people, and great opportunities. Everyday that we spend in this world is a privilege, but people seem to be taking this amazing gift for granted more and more frequently. I can’t go 20 minutes without hearing someone say how they hate themselves because they didn’t get an A on the math test, or their parents will kill them because they didn’t do well enough in a class. It seems like everyone is too caught up in school, work, and responsibilities to really appreciate the fact that they are living in a world with endless possibilities for happiness. I understand this problem, all throughout my middle school and highschool life I have strived for perfect grades, and even at one point in my middle school career I believed that my purpose in life was just to get good grades and be intelligent, but looking back on all the time I devoted to stressing about school, I'm honestly disappointed in myself, because I know now that it wasn’t worth all of the stress. It was only this year that I really learned to focus on enjoying life instead of wallowing in homework and despair, I don’t know if it was an early case of senioritis or an early midlife crisis, but I just said it's time to live. People seem to let stress and worry cloud their mind until they become blind to the world that they live in, they no longer appreciate the simple fact that they’re alive. Everyone just seems to take it for granted. I understand that people need to pay attention to their responsibilities, their jobs, their school work, but society is getting to a point where all of these trivial matters, like grades and promotions, are all that people can focus on. Nobody will be laying on their deathbed with regrets of not spending more time in school, or spending more hours in the office, people will regret not spending more time with their friends and family, they’ll regret not embracing their passions. So to you my friends, I say live every day like its your last, as cliche as it sounds it sure beats living with the depression and sadness caused by homework. You have two choices in life, you can exist, or you can live, the people who spend all of their time worrying about tiny unimportant details on a homework assignment aren’t really living, they’re just getting by. I understand how difficult it is to truly appreciate the world we live in when all we hear about are test scores and GPAs, but we as highschool students need to realize that there is so much more to life than just schoolwork. I am not trying to make a generalization and say everyone is incredibly stressed out and focused only on school, but we are at Foothill after all so I’m sure there are a lot of you who have similar struggles. Let me ask you a question, why is it, that today, Tuesday June 9th, we are all so anxious? We are anticipating the very near Summer break. But why are we so excited for summer but not a Monday morning? Thats because most of us feel like going to school is like going to prison for 6 hours a day. But school does not own you, I know it might feel like it when you're buried under calc homework and physio tests but you are not a slave to school or your job or anything else. You are completely free to live your life and really enjoy doing so. This isn’t to say that we should all cast off any semblance of responsibility and have a throwback to the 70’s, but this is supposed to be the best time of our lives, shouldn’t we be living like it? School is important sure, but why work 6 hours a night for that perfect 5.0 GPA if it costs you even the slightest bit of joy in your highschool years. That is not living, thats hardly even existing. I want to see an America where people are excited not only for the weekend, but also for Tuesday afternoon, or Thursday morning. I want to see everyone, regardless of age, being happy just to be alive for another day. Work and school should not own anyone, work and school are not the main purpose of our lives, we will never look back and say, I wish I had worked more and learned more about how mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. We’ll say, damn, why didn’t I go streaking in the Snapper Jack’s parking lot? The world does not revolve around responsibilities, the world is at our disposal and we are here to enjoy our lives, so to you my fellow AmEx students, I say go live your life, really live it up, don’t just get by in your boring existence.
 * Don't Let Life Spook You **


 * Sources: Middle school anxiety, history class, calculus, all those other stressful things inspired this speech. **