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Forgive me ahead of time, I know a lot of the time it seems like I’ll never stop talking but in front of a bunch of people there’s nothing I’d rather do so I may stutter throughout this. I was originally going to do this speech on how I wanted people to stop being so boring. When I told this to Mr. Geib, Maya immediately responded by saying “wouldn’t everybody become boring in their spontaneity?” There goes that idea. I then wrote an entire speech about how I thought that our generation needs to take more risks. 5 minutes after completing it, I realized I don’t really care what other people do with their lives, I only really care what I do and who I do it with. If some random 4.0 unweighted AP kid decides to drink a beer instead of popping an Adderall like they have been all year then by all means go ahead but who am I to say that everyone should take risks. Instead, I’d like to cover a more simple topic. In the America I want to grow up in, I want everyone to be able to appreciate who they are as a person, how much they’ve achieved, their potential, and their luck at being placed on this Earth as a human, and not a snail or something.

We’ve all had that one moment in our lives where we did something so stupid, embarrassing, aggravating, or a combination of the 3 that makes us want to redo all of our life decisions so that we don’t end up in that scenario again. For me, that was when I tripped and fell in the championship game of kickball in the 5th grade, didn’t make it to first base, and lost my team the game. It still haunts me. But 6 years later, Fitz told us all something that helped me, and hopefully helped the rest of you too. He said on the first day of class “If you ever feel like you totally screwed up, you didn’t do it as bad as Ryan Lochte.” For those of you who don’t know, Ryan Lochte is a swimmer on the US Olympic team told reporters he was jumped in Brazil during last year’s Olympic Games while he actually had gotten into a barfight and lied to attempt to hold his reputation. While i don’t understand why he did this and it lost him much of his reputation, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a lot to look forward to. Yeah he totally screwed up, but he doesn’t have it that bad. He still swims professionally, is worth 4 million dollars, and is only 32 years old. Doesn’t seem like the worst life to be living if you ask me, but there’s more to being happy than being rich, young, attractive, charismatic, having a hot girlfriend and being a decorated Olympian.

I’m perfectly happy with who I am. I have a 3.8 GPA, live in a great place, and have awesome friends. But many of you may not know is that I’m not perfect. I’ve made a short list of my flaws here:I’m terrified of airplanes and spiders in that order, still sing the song they taught is in kindergarten to remember our months in my head when I have to remember if June is after April or May, and I use the words dude, dog, and sick way too often even though 2007 was a decade ago. Thankfully, I still managed to make friends in high school, all of which I have awesome relationships with. One of my closest friends and I even have the habit of singing an entire song when it comes on or just randomly singing it, like this. “Annie’s twelve years old, in two more she’ll be a whore” *queue Logan* We’re actually coming out with a cover album later this year composed of just Sublime and Green Day songs because those are really the only ones that both of us know all of the lyrics to. This could be a flaw in itself. But a quote from the big man himself, Machine Gun Kelly, states that “our flaws are what make us perfect.” This is the America I want to grow up in. I want guys to be okay with the fact that the ukulele isn’t the most masculine instrument ever and learn it anyways. I want emo kids to know that just because they’re going to regret their taste in music later in life doesn’t mean they need to look down on themselves now. I want everyone to be able to look in the mirror and smile, because out of the 75 billion tons of living things that exist on Earth, you were one of the 7.347 billion humans and that’s something to have pride in. I truly just want more people to be happy and smile not for the happiness a smile portrays to others, but because of the happiness you feel inside. Thank you.