Ariane+F’s+Final+AmEx+2014+Speech

=Title of Speech=

"Acceptance"

=Text of Speech= Looking around the room I can’t help but wonder how many of you are insecure. How many of you look in the mirror and hate what you see. Is it because of your hair? The acne scars? Your weight? Lack of abs? No thigh gap? Your smile? I constantly wonder about this. And then I think to myself: “Why?” Why do we get so goddamn self-conscious? We are all gorgeous and handsome and shine in our own way. Your hair is uncontrollable? So, what? Start a new style. You have acne? We’re teenagers! We’re dirty and we have acne; we can’t help it. You’re transgender, bi, cisgender, straight, drag or anything in between? You are who you are. Own that. No one is a better you than you.

We’ve been told by our parents since we were little that we’re all “special”, “unique”, or “a snowflake”. We believed them. But somewhere along the way, we lost that trust, that belief that we truly are different. We entered the so-called real world and all of a sudden we wanted to be like everybody else. We were taught by society that to stand out means to be different and being different was wrong. We were taught to discriminate against those unlike us, to call them names or exclude them. We began to outcast.

I once knew this girl in elementary school. Her name was Ana. She was foreign and unlike every other girl at my school. Ana didn’t dress like the other girls, who wore skirts and clearly “girly” clothes. Instead, she owned the style of tomboy. She would come to school wearing baggy pants and sweaters, when she did, everybody would make fun of her. They would call her a “boy” and a “freak”. The little ten year old children would force her into the boys’ bathroom on a daily basis. Think about that. Ten years old.

 I remember one day it was lunchtime and we were all sitting around in our usual areas when, from across the hall, I could hear a chant beginning. “Ana is a freak. Ana is a freak. Ana is a freak.” You know why they were calling her a freak? Because her mom left her a note in her lunch bag and some pig nosed ten year old took it out and read it to everyone and then told Ana to go eat in the boys’ bathroom. I got up, walked over to her, sat down, and started eating lunch with her. Everybody stopped chanting. Instead they all stared until I asked: “Is something wrong?” and they all dispersed.

After they were gone, I asked Ana if she would like to come to my birthday party that was happening at the end of the month. She smiled for a second, but then her face dropped and she hesitated in answering.

“Nobody wants me there. They all think I’m a freak.”

I hugged her and replied, “I don’t think you’re a freak. I think you’re pretty cool. I would love to have you at my birthday party.”

When the day arrived, everyone had showed up but her. Already they were talking about her. I finally snapped and yelled at them.

When Ana arrived with her mom, she didn’t leave my side. Her mom and my mom were off in the background chatting away. The more Ana opened up and began talking to my friends and I, the more I could see my friends accept her. For the first time, I saw Ana truly enjoying herself.

My mom later told me that Ana’s mom had told her that my birthday party was the first party Ana had attended since moving from Russia. She said that Ana constantly came home crying from other kids who taunted her and had begun to change her wardrobe to fit according to every other girl.

What I don’t understand is: when did we start hurting and restricting others for being themselves?

Here, at Foothill, we have it pretty good. Look around, we’re all really weird and aren’t afraid to speak out against the norm, or dress however we want, or //be// different. But, in other schools? The kids who stick out like a sore thumb, those kids are the ones who get bullied, taunted, sometimes even threatened. Why are we so against different? Why do we all want to be the same? This isn’t the 50’s. We don’t have to conform to some pre-made mold.

If you’re a lesbian, own that. Why keep it a secret? It adds to who you are.

If you’re transgender, don’t be afraid to show it.

If you’re gay, we will all still love you. I for one, will not judge you for who you are.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">If you’re cisgender, good for you! Do not be ashamed.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Our society has taught all of us that we have certain standards to live up to, and if we don’t, well, we’re pretty much screwed. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Guys have to fit the mold of tough, sexy abs, smart, sweet, and romantic. Who cares if you are not all those things? If you’re not any of those things! Society shouldn’t own you as a person. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Girls? Well, in order to fit the mold of “sexy”, we have to be as skinny as a starving dog, have decent sized boobs, and dress girly. I can tell you right now, I am not any one of those. And I am completely okay with that.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">There’s this Tumblr post that I saw the other day that really stood out to me and inspired me to write this speech.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">I don’t want to fit some mold that has already been made for me, that looks just like everyone else’s. I want to form and shape my own as I live my life. I found three quotes that really stood out to me regarding this subject.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Bernard M. Baruch said, “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter, don't mind.”

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Mark Twain said, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">And Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson, who we all adore, said that “to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">In the America that I grow old in I want to see more acceptance. I want to see people gathered together that are clearly different, who aren’t scared to be themselves in a crowd. I want to see work places accept those with tattoos and piercings because having those does not make you a bad person. I want to see the entirety of the United States allow gay marriage because loving someone of the same sex does not disqualify your love. I do not want to see people looking at drag queens, or trans-genders, with a disapproving and disgusted look. I do not want my kids to face any sort of discrimination when it comes to being who they are. I do not want the America that I grow old in to extinguish their light, instead, I wish for it to feed and encourage it and teach them that it is completely alright to be different.

=Cite Your Sources=