Ariana+S’s+Final+AmEx+2014+Speech


 * Stupid People**

 Hate is a strong word. With this in mind, let me say that I hate stupid people. Let me clarify, I don’t hate people that are not smart. I hate people who think that it is cool to be stupid. I hate people who have absolutely no common sense.  There are people in the world who walk more than ten miles to go to school each day so that they can receive an education. Yet there are kids in America who fake a stomach ache so that they don’t have to go to school. I’m not going to lie; I was quite the actor when I was younger. But now I have realized how lucky I am to live where I live and attend school where I do. The stupid people are those who continue to take advantage of their situation while remaining ignorant to the fact that there are people in the world who would do almost anything just to have even an elementary level education.  So who are these stupid people? Well, as much as I hate to say it there are quite a few present in my life. I have a few first-hand stories to tell. The first is about a person that I am actually very close to. For the sake of the story, she will be Friend One. One day, we were talking with an older lady with another friend, Friend Two. The lady asked friend two what her ethnicity is, and she replied, “I’m Mexican.” After this, friend one looked at me and gasped. Luckily she held her tongue for the rest of the conversation. However, later in the car she looked at friend two and said, “I can’t believe you said that you are Mexican!” Friend two replied with a bewildered look on her face, “What do you mean? I am Mexican.” Friend one replied with, “Nooooo, you’re Spanish. It’s racist to say that you’re Mexican.” As soon as these words slipped out of her mouth I was shocked. Now, I knew that friend one isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed or the brightest bulb in the box, but I had no idea that it was this bad. Friend two quickly responded, “Ahhhhh nope. My family is from Mexico, you know the country south of us…” Now this is everything that I can accurately remember, but as I’m sure you can imagine the conversation was very eye opening.  Now for another example. Just last year I was in a class and I was talking with some people and the fifty states were brought up. Then a girl, different from the two in the past story, asked how many states are in the United States. I cannot accurately describe how quickly everyone’s head turned to look at her. You would’ve thought that she had just confessed to murdering someone by the looks that everyone gave her. After a few seconds someone looked at her and said, “you’re kidding right?” With an innocent look she responded with, “well I know that it’s either 49, 50, or 51.” This is someone that goes to our school! We all just stared at her not knowing if she was joking or being sincere. After establishing that she honestly did not know the answer to her question we told her that there are 50. Then we asked her if she knew how many continents there are in the world. She said, “uhhh, six?” Again, the indescribable looks of disbelief aimed at her. We then told her that there are actually seven, and then we proceeded to tell her all of the names. Five minutes later we asked her the names of the seven continents. Much to our disbelief she couldn’t do this. She could only name six.  When I grow old, I do not want to be surrounded by ignorant people. I want everyone to have a general concept of the geography of the world. I want everyone to have some common sense as a foundation from which they can build their knowledge. I want the world to be a place where everyone can attain an education that will benefit them. I want the world to be a more intelligent place.

 Please understand that this speech is not directed at any particular person. The examples are simply to show first hand experience of what I hope the world that I grow old can be free of.