Natalie+B’s+Final+AmEx+Speech+2017

In the midst of an existential crisis in which, as a side note, happened many times throughout the past school year, people usually find themselves asking questions such as: What is the meaning of life? What is my purpose? Why was I put on this planet? And today, i am here to answer your existential selfs question. Today, my purpose in giving you this speech (other than the fact that is a requirement for my grade), is to essentially help you understand your purpose on this planet.

I realize the immense task i have just taken on. I, a mere classmate have taken upon the task to inform you of your purpose in life. However bear with me.

With the last day of my junior year upon me, I can almost officially say that I have completed 3 years of high school. Each and every day of those three years I have grown as individual, met my amazing best friends who day in and day out keep spark alive, and I have learned so much both academically and socially. And as perfect as all of that sounds, I, like everyone else to ever live, am not perfect. Instead of dwelling over your imperfections whether they be physical or social, or what ever imperfections you have, you should instead celebrate them. And by that I mean not literally like throwing a party for your imperfections, but rather accept them. And by accepting them you will realize how insignificant they are. I urge you to enjoy your life and forget about the idea of imperfections that plague our personalities.

Let's talk about the word perfect for a second. Like who the hell even came up with this word. This word in and of itself is illogical. NOTHING IS PERFECT. Now that's not to say that things won't go extremely well, but flawlessly, I think not. So given that perfect is nonexistent i ask you to disregard your imperfections and enjoy your life because you only get one.

That small, optimistic, 5 letter word is what this entire speech is based around. This word is they key to unlocking your purpose. And that word you ask: Enjoy. E.N.J.O.Y. A small seemingly insignificant word that we’ve all been missing for a while.

Your purpose on this planet to enjoy it. Enjoy your life for your own sake. Anything less is a waste. Through the good and the bad you must remember that this is your one and only life. Especially through the bad. When you feel bitter, or dismal, when you feel like the world is against you. YOU need to snap yourself back into reality. The only person that is against you is is you. That little person in the back of your head that supplies you excuses, pettiness, reasons to be angry etc, you need to shut him up. All of that anger, and pettiness and sadness is wasted time. Get out there and enjoy your life instead of wasting it. We all have two lives. The second starts when we realize we only have one.

You see, I am very much an observer. At times I like to sit quietly and watch the world around me revolve. I like to people watch. As creepy as it sounds, sometimes i will just watch people at school to try and decode their life. Being the observer that I am, for my past three years of high I have observed, observed, and observed some more. And through the observation I found a prevalent themes among people at our school, and honestly people in general. This themes being the worry and stress and fear that is instilled in people. People stressed about tests, people worried about their image and others perceptions of them. People afraid to be themselves, awkward people, uncomfortable people.

Its sad isn't it? Its sad that we currently live in a society that is so damn worried about every damn thing. Why are we so afraid to put ourselves out into the world? Really though. This is our one life and our one world and you just have to take a chance. Yet we are afraid. We self destruct these chances out of fear of imperfection. We forget that nothing is perfect.

People take life and themselves way too seriously. They fear mistakes. They fear imperfection. They fear judgement. And without realizing it, day by day, this fear, worry, and stress plagues our personalities. Our personalities drown into the depths of an intangible feeling. We lose ourselves to ourselves. But why? Worry is a useless mulling over things we cannot change. Worry is a waste of time. It doesn't change anything, and steals your happiness. You have one life to enjoy so why waste time doing otherwise?

In the America that I want to grow old in I want people to stop worrying all the time. I want people to stop stressing. I want people to stop being afraid of the world. People tend to take life, themselves and the world too seriously.

In the America I want to grow old in I just want people to enjoy their lives in general.

And on that note I ask you to please from this point forward stop worrying so much.

Given that it is almost summer, this task should be easy. All of the stresses and worry that the school year bears, are over.

This summer I ask you to indulge. I ask you to speak without fear. I ask you to be 100% yourself and be proud of that. I ask you to utilize the world to the fullest possible. And most importantly, I ask you to enjoy it. I don't care what you do, how you do it, or who you do it with, but enjoy your life.

And in the fall when we all return for our last year of high school, I want you to continue enjoying it. Through the stresses of college apps and AP classes, I want you to remember me giving you this speech. I want you to remember me. And in remembering me, remember the insignificance of worrying If there is one thing that I want you to get from this speech more than anything, it's that life really isn't that serious. I'm going to end this with my favorite quote of all time. “Everyone should smile. Life really isn't that serious. We make it hard. The sun rises. The sun sets. We just tend to complicate the process.