Eva+H’s+Final+AmEx+2015+Speech


 * Title of Speech: Having No Shame **
 * Text of Speech **

Having no shame. Seems impossible doesn’t it? Not to have an ounce of shame in your whole body. Well yeah, it is impossible. Which is why by “having no shame” I mean having very very little of it.

As all of you know, I dyed my the ends of my hair purple near the beginning of this year. Some people stared at me, but not many. And they were the good kind of stares too. The “wow that’s cool” stare, or the “I wish I had the bravery to do that” stare.

So after months of only having a small portion of color in my hair, I wanted to do something daring, something out of the box, something that I could only do before I became an adult: dye my whole head purple. I thought “why not? I’ve never cared what people thought of me before, so why should I care now?” I was so proud and excited about how it looked, until I went outside. All my life, I’ve never cared what people thought of me. But after I dyed my whole head bright purple, people started to stare, and it was the bad kind of stares too. The “she looks horrible” stare and the silent “judging you” stare. I started to feel insecure. Something I’ve never felt before. I got a dropping feeling in my stomach when I looked at my hair in the mirror. I felt unhappy with myself for the first time in my life. It was weird because I’ve never had any sort of major appearance issues or confidence issues in my life. The stares caused me to think my hair looked bad and was a mistake. I didn’t want to leave my house. My friends and family told me how great it looked, and I wanted so badly to believe them, but I just couldn’t. Eventually, I realized that they were right. It looked amazing, but I only realized that once it faded away and I turned into a blonde. And now, I miss it. It was fun. It was wild. And I came to realize people were only staring because they wished they had the bravery to do what I did.

Now, as you can clearly see, I dyed my hair back to brown yesterday and added some streaks. I decided to do this because the last time I dyed my hair, I let people control what I thought. This time, I won’t let them get in my head. Feeling insecure for the first time, taught me that I simply shouldn’t feel insecure. I know that’s not an option for some people, but for me, dyeing my hair taught me that I shouldn’t care what people think about me, they shouldn’t be able to ruin my happiness.

The other day my friend and I were screeching like pterodactyls at each other. Don’t ask. A friend came up to us, so, naturally, we decided to teach her how to expertly screech like a pterodactyl. And she said to us, “People are looking at us, let’s stop.” And I thought, “Why?” Yeah we are being quite odd at the moment to say the least, but I mean who cares what they think? We aren’t harming anyone. People always say to me “Don’t do that! People are staring!” SO?! I don’t care! Let them stare!.

Now it’s not fair to say that I have absolutely no shame. Everyone has shame. I have enough shame to not make a fool of myself and to know when to stop doing something that produces negative reactions. I mean, I get embarrassed, everyone does. But I honestly don’t feel much shame. Having no shame doesn’t mean I don’t care about my image. It means I value myself and won’t let people judge me for who I am. Having no shame means confidence. Having no shame is the most valuable quality one can posses in order to be comfortable with themselves. Having no shame is what I am most proud of myself for.

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” -Eleanor Roosevelt. Thank you.


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