Jameson+M’s+Final+AmEx+2014+Speech

=Take a Cold Shower=

Text of Speech
Ever since it was announced that California was in a state of emergency with the drought, my mom has made me water all of our plants and lawns with buckets. As our showers, baths, and sinks heat up to a nice temperature (which takes several minutes), we’ve collected the cold water in grey Lowe’s buckets and used this former waste water to irrigate our lawns, rose gardens, ferns, and really whatever the hell my mom wants me to water. After carrying dozens of Lowes buckets down 2 flights of stairs and after receiving multiple WTF looks from neighbors while I water my front lawn with a bucket in my pajamas, at 7 in the morning, I decided 2 days ago to take action- I took a cold shower so there would be no buckets to fill. I’m not sure if that’s laziness or initiative, but I digress.

I’d taken cold showers before, but it had been a while. It was a complete shock to my system, and my breathing became exasperated and my lips purple. Why was I doing this again? Oh yeah, condescending looks from neighbors and disproportionally large forearms from carrying so many buckets around my house.

I came very close to hopping out of that shower and flipping the nozzle to extra hot, but I stayed in the cold water. After recovering from mild hypothermia, I felt rejuvenated and excited to start my day. I felt like Walter White with cancer. Sort of. To quote the meth cook, I was AWAKE. I was alive. The cold water was uncomfortable, but it made my mind and body fully awake.

People need to learn to not accept some of their comforts. The cold water, although uncomfortable, allowed me to learn from that discomfort, and thus become more awake and more ready to conquer the day. On the other hand, the hot showers that every American takes daily merely numbs the mind and body and puts it to sleep. I was asleep at the beginning of this year. I had it all planned out, like most people here have it all planned out. My extracurriculars, the colleges I would apply to, the clubs I would join, and the leadership positions I would run for. In other words, I was comfortable just doing what appeared comfortable.

Partway through the year, I did something that didn’t fall into my plan. Some of you may know that I started a club on campus this year. I could have made a STEM club like I originally planned to promote the addition of science and technology classes at Foothill (a tech school, mind you, that doesn’t even have a computer programming class). I could have made a stock market club that teaches investing principles, although how many teenagers would sign up for that. Instead, I made probably one of the most trivial clubs here: the Ping Pong club. I was absolutely horrible at Ping Pong; in fact, last summer, I didn’t even know how to hold a paddle **holds paddle awkwardly**. Yet, ironically, Ping Pong has brought me some of the fondest memories during my entire junior year. I didn’t do what was expected of me. I did what I wanted, because I wasn’t content with doing norm.

Now, I’m breaking the plan again. After 4 years of playing Varsity golf, I’ve suddenly decided to randomly join Foothill’s cross-country team. I probably won’t be good enough on the team for that little laundry list item to make its way into my college apps. With admission to a dream college being, as Mr. Geib described it, possibly the single most important thing of each teenager’s entire high school career, why would I sign up to spend so much time doing something that won’t even contribute? The answer is that I wanted some chaos in my life. I thirsted for a challenge; I imagined myself filling out college applications while taking 6 AP classes while running 30 miles a week, and I thought, what else could be more exciting? What else could top the stress of junior year, the SAT, the ACT, AP tests, etc. etc. etc. Joining Cross Country is a risk. It’s a discomfort. But that discomfort will ultimately make me a fit, more well rounded person, not to mention that I’ll have the opportunity to participate in something entirely new, meet people who are entirely new, and experience something entirely new.

Recently, I spoke to an old friend from Oxnard. I asked him what his plans were after high school, because everybody should have plans right? He merely shrugged and said, “I dunno”. Instantly, I thought of how he would fail. I thought of how I would succeed, and how he should have been planning to do all the right things like I have been planning my entire life. But now, I feel envious of him. I wish I could be as carefree as him. I also realized that he always likes to put himself in all kinds of uncomfortable circumstances. I’ve realized that he might even be enjoying life a little more than I am.

In the America I want to grow up in, I want to see more people willing to take risks and put themselves in uncomfortable positions to learn from them. I don’t want to see people who will be forever asleep to world around them by being perpetually immersed in hot comfortable showers. I don’t want to see an America where people are comfortably numb.

=**Cite Your Sources**=

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