Chris+R’s+Final+AmEx+2013+Speech



=Title of Speech= Balance

=Text of Speech= When was the last time anyone in AP US History or in any sort of AP or honors program didn’t have a single thought about homework or anything school related on their mind? For me it would have to be at about early July of 2012. I don’t know if I can speak for anyone else on this topic, but I a have constant stream of thought on what I have to do in order for me to pass any class with an acceptable grade. For my parents that is an A in every single subject except AP English. This constant stream of reminders that pop into my head every so often to remind me what I have to accomplish by the end of the day, has created a boatload of stress that rest heavily upon my shoulders. I have always firmly believed that it was our parents, the College Board, or even our school that put the stress that we have grown to hate and flourish in. But I was wrong. In reality it is ourselves that put the enormous pressure to be the best we can be. It is not our parents, it is not the College Board, it is not our school that makes us stay up until 3 in the morning to write a speech we have known for over two weeks so that it is perfectly polished and will give the needed grade boost to receive an A- in AP US History for the second semester. We do all of this so we can be above average in the slightest of hopes that we will stand out in the thousands of college applications universities look at, every winter. No one took Mr. Geib’s or Mrs. Kindred’s AP classes because they both loved US History and English Composition. We took them because we either liked one subject and only agreed to take the other because it offered a GPA bump. Next year I am currently enrolled in 5 AP classes with ASB completing the set. Why am I doing this? I honestly don't know. The only sufficient answer I can provide is that I want to. I am willing to go on the verge of academic suicide to please my own demons. In doing so I am putting more stress on myself. The point I am trying to make at the moment is that we are dedicating too much of our lives to school and not enough to actually have a life outside of the walls that currently surround us. We are too focused on the achievements and the grades; we don’t put enough effort in living life to the fullest as teenagers. We are wasting our potential as young adults as we sit here constantly worrying about things we don’t even have to. It is only in our teenage youth where we are able to have similar rights and freedoms as adults, but yet not be burdened as they are. This is the time where are able to be free and totally make LEGAL mistakes like accidently scratching your father’s sedan and not have it be seen as vandalism or my favorite memory so far, is //accidently// lobbing a gallon sized zip lock bag filled with water at your friend’s car while he is driving down the street, to later learn that he sold it the week before and while you end up with a scared and angry stranger screaming at you. What I am trying to say is that we are too occupied with grades and where they will put us. We believe that if we get a B in certain class, that it will forever tarnish the perfect 3.8 GPA that you had all year. We give credit to grades too often. Universities no longer just look at GPAs for an acceptance standard to be met. They also look at extracurricular activities and testing. We are neglecting the extracurriculars if we focus too much on the school aspect of our life. It needs to stop In my own small close-knit group of friends almost every single conversation revolves around school. It’s always “Chris do know how to do the Calculus homework from last week,” or “What did we do in class today?” I honestly do not remember a single conversation held at the beginning of school every day that didn’t start off with “Hey did we have homework for so and so?” What makes it worse, is that I am unable to leave this attitude behind at school. I find myself living weekend to weekend, in the hopes that if I am able to make it to Saturday or Sunday I will be able to catch up on the homework I was unable to finish in the previous week. One the fondest memories I have from this year where I was **//__so__//** dedicated to my school work was when I had a party to attend the same night I had decided to finish up a Physiology Lab report. By the time I had written my final draft, I had rewritten the paper 4 different times and discovered that I had missed the party by 3 hours. The funny thing is, that I planned to work on the paper the next day. In the America I want to grow old in and see future generations be raised correctly, I want to see a future where children and young adults are able to maintain a balance between school work and living life to the fullest. I don’t want to see them have to make a choice between achieving great standards in school or having some sort of life outside of their academics. I don’t want to hear teachers assigning homework assignments such as “Go out and get a life” just as Mrs. Kindred has done once before. And I especially don’t want the youth of America to be reliant on websites such as Reddit or Procrastinator.com to provide any sort of distraction in the form of cute fuzziness like a box full of kittens seen here, to relieve the burden they put on themselves.

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