Kyle+C’s+Final+AmEx+Speech+2017

Sadness is not the monster that hides under your bed when you sleep at night although I believe that we like to treat it this way. We give too much power to an entity that grows when we shun it and only truly disappears when we acknowledge the fact that it was ever there, and due to this we begin to loathe others who always seem to tiptoe around it. I’d like to think that I was one of those people who have spent their life in ignorant bliss able to build a wall high enough as to not let the monster in, but sadly I’m not. There have been moments where I’ve slipped up and let my guard down. Moments where I have spoiled myself with the thought that I had been overtaken completely. I may have claimed not to want it yet I jumped at the chance to let it in consuming more than my share, leaving me too full to move on.Astonishingly enough, what you are hearing is not meant to be sad because as of now I’m currently speaking from one of the happiest states I have been in my life. Because now I’ve learned something very important, that sadness is not something to be avoided; rather it is something that should be experienced and embraced freely.

Often times when I hear people talk about living a “positive” life they seem to portray one without any “negative” emotions whatsoever. There seems to be an illusion about this way of thinking, a misconception that in order to live a positive life all emotions that aren’t considered “happy” are to be cast off. This, however, is not the truth...Although social media might make you think it is. People (specifically some of my best friends) started living their life online in order to escape from a reality that they can’t control. They somehow gain a sense of self from how many likes they receive and use this as a way to qualify their existence. As Sontag describes “the camera’s rendering of reality must always hide more than it discloses” and as someone who knows what is hidden from these photos, I agree with her. The magic of social media is that you truly can be whoever you want, given this, people are starting to formulate their lives around a “false” image and although they may be depressed and lonely in real life find some solace in the fact that everyone thinks they're happy, they use social media as a mask of sorts concealing their true emotions with a seemingly genial front somehow taking the idea that if everyone believes in the lies they are displaying they will too.

Social media has provided people with the need to have their reality confirmed by other’s perception of themselves and through this, they are missing out on something valuable that is feeling an emotion that needs to be felt rather than building a wall and hiding away.
 * I want to grow old in an America where people embrace sadness and stop using social media qualify their existence. **