Karina+S’s+Final+AmEx+2013+Speech

=Title of Speech= Eggplant Allergies and other misdemeanors

=Text of Speech=

Last month, on April 6th, I sat down with my parents to enjoy a celebratory dinner. In honor of the publication of my book, my mom had prepared my favorite, eggplant Parmesan. I was thrilled, because when my sister lived with us, I didn’t get to eat it very often because she didn’t like it. So it was a rare and special treat. I quickly dug in and ate half of the eggplant slice on my plate, within seconds my tongue felt funny. I thought maybe I was just getting a cold, so I drank some milk and continued.

I finished my eggplant, but when I was about to reach for another one, I started to feel even funnier. I tried to ask my mom if she maybe knew why, but I couldn’t. My tongue had doubled in size and I could barely breathe. My mom hadn’t used any new ingredients, and the sauce was the same from a night before.

So what was making my tongue swell up? It came down to only one thing, the eggplant. I was honestly depressed. Seriously, you don’t know how much I love eggplant. So, with this love, I decided to test it again when I ate a veggie burger, that I conveniently forgot had eggplant in it. Same result.

So probably more than half of you are probably wondering, “god Karina, is your speech about eggplant, I don’t even like those. Why would you talk about a vegetable.” Well, much to my chagrin, my speech isn’t about eggplant, though it is fantastic and everyone who isn’t allergic is a lucky son of a bitch.

My speech is about allergies. Well sort of. My whole life I have been allergic to many things, not a lot, but many. Let me list them for those of you who don’t know. I’m allergic to sunscreen, to gold, silver, the adhesive on bandaids, kiwi, eggplant, and the one everyone seems to know, candy. That’s not that much, yet my 8th grade best friend deemed me as the girl who is allergic to everything except the bathroom sink. Little did he know I broke out when I touched my parents’ sink because they had just put on sunscreen.

I really really hate it when people hear what I’m allergic to and they respond with “God, you’re allergic to everything!” Let me clarify something, I am not allergic to everything. I am barely allergic to anything. There are a few things that I am more sensitive to, but that doesn’t really matter, what matters is, it’s not my fault.

In the America I want to grow old in, people don’t make snap judgments about things we can’t change, about things we are born with.

I was born with allergies; others are born with bigger bones, mental, or maybe physical defects. There are things about each and every one of us that we only have because our mommies and our daddies had a very special kind of hug, and 9 months later we were born.

Now, I’m not saying its their fault, or our grandparents’, but its also not ours. I want America to stop making judgments about characteristics and things beyond our control, and start making judgments after we’ve gotten to know the person. Know their flaws and imperfections, but also their good attributes and their aspirations. No, I wasn’t judged for being allergic to many things, but I was mocked and ridiculed which is just annoying. It’s the same as blonde jokes, as if a hair color makes you any less intelligent. That’s just not how it works.

In the America I want to grow old in, I want people to judge others based on their actions, on their opinions, and their mind, not their body, and not their allergies.

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