Christina+C’s+Final+AmEx+2013+Speech

=Spoilers=

There’s a certain kind of person who exists in America: they’re the people who read the last page of a book first. Yes, I know, I find it hard to believe as well, that such atrocities are being committed among us, maybe in this very classroom, and yet are going unchecked. These offenders are not fully to blame of course. They know not the experience they are denying themselves of. The mystery, the thrill of discovery, of the unknown, that they have just destroyed with a single sweep of their eyes. I’ve heard that you’re more likely to enjoy reading the book once you’ve committed this awful crime, because you are constantly figuring out why whatever ending you’ve read comes about, but I vehemently disagree. If you know how it ends, you may as well just put the book down and be done with it. Not to be morbid, but wouldn’t life lose some of it’s thrill, the essence of being alive, if you knew exactly how it all ended? You’d just be waiting, counting down, anticipating: 20 years, 5 days, 3 and half hours, 44 seconds. 10 years, 4 days, 2 hours, 21 seconds. 1 day, 1 hour, 0 seconds. You certainly wouldn’t be enjoying yourself, not fully, and it’s the same when reading, instead of letting yourself be immersed in the story your mind is trying to piece the puzzle together. The fact that people want to know the ending of anything they plan on reading or watching at all perplexes me, is it that we don’t have the patience? That our decreasing attention spans render us susceptible to stooping down to such a low level? And our peers and colleagues are equally guilty, they are all far too eager to spill the secrets, to deny others of the same pleasure they had before they read it.

Now, I’ve written at least five speeches, about anxiety, about childhood innocence, about spontaneity, about responsibility. But, it’s been a very long, very fulfilling, yet equally draining year, and I think I’ve taken all the seriousness I can handle, and I’m sure you’d all appreciate if I didn’t stand here talking about my dog’s brain tumor. Plus Mr. Geib said to write about something you’re passionate about… and I really hate spoilers. It might even be a step above my intense hatred of arachnids.

You can’t just tell me how something turns out; no, when I say I want to know what you got me for Christmas or for my birthday, that does not mean I just gave you actual permission to tell me. No I was not aware that Gatsby was going to die, that chapter hadn’t been assigned yet, but I am now, thanks. Yes I can still hear you when you’re talking about the episode of a show I haven’t gotten to and you tell me 'just don't not listen then'. But why is this such a big deal? Why does it matter in the large scheme of America’s future? In mine? Well, I suppose in a way it doesn’t. Of course there are a lot of problems that I want to see addressed in America, I want improved medical treatments, less violence, less poverty, I want to see a successful America with more families staying together and kids eager to go to school and learn, I want an increase in intellectual curiosity and global awareness, etc. And I believe we are fully capable of this, because I’m an optimist, and I believe that things are going to work out for the better in the end. But there’s the catch, I don’t know how it ends. If I did, I couldn’t choose to believe anything, I would simply know, and I couldn’t imagine a better future, or even a different one, from the one that simply is. There’s no room for change or creativity, there’s just what’s going to happen. Period. And so in the America I grow up in I don’t want to be surrounded by people who read the last sentence in that book, who look up the ending of a tv series, who want to know who dies and who lives in a movie, and not just because they’re the most annoying people to sit next to in a theatre, people who aren’t content with waiting it out, with figuring things out gradually the way they were meant to be.

Because what’s life without a little intrigue? Why in the world would you want to know everything? That would be awfully boring and dull. The fun is in the path to enlightenment, not having it handed to you on a silver platter. I hate spoilers, but I love a good mystery, and luckily for me there is always something else to figure out in life, something to delve deeper into. And unlike the countless Scooby Doo episodes I watched as a child where the monster stood out like a sore thumb, the answers are seldom blatantly obvious in life, in fact some things don’t have answers at all. In life we don’t even have the option of spoilers, we can anticipate sure, meticulously plan everything down to the last detail, but it’s all just speculation, we have no choice but to live life day by day, page by page, and we should keep it that way. So go enjoy your summer, read a good book, but from start to finish, not the other way around. Thank you.

=Cite Your Sources=