Daniel+C’s+Final+AmEx+Speech+2017

An American I want to Grow up in   I want to grow up in an America where people are less judgmental. Now i don't mean people shouldn't criticize politics and world problems but I want people to stop being so critical and judgmental to others. I see now especially people judging others more and more for reasons that are completely ridiculous. Things like clothes and music choice and style, people are being criticized for the things they enjoy, bullied because they don't fit the “normal” social stature. I don't want to stand up here and sound like I am nagging people for having an opinion and not liking sallys new hair cut because I have no problem with that i've seen plenty of people with a very different look or hobby that i just didn't understand and frankly thought it was stupid, but i do have a problem with the kids who go out of there way to criticize the other person tease and make fun of them some taking to social media and posting something like a picture of them mocking them, just blatant bullying them having and no respect for their interest. .

Now some people i'm sure are thinking “daniel c'mon this sounds stupid it's just a little joke” but it's actually a much bigger issue that a lot of people may realize. Imagine this, you are a kid growing up in a home with an abusive father and a crack addicted mom, a situation where i think we can all agree is pretty rough, so you’re growing up there and are trying to stay away from the drugs and violence so you take to some sort of sport or style of clothing you really like to get your head off the already hard life you have. So you go to school really excited to show your new shirt or go play at the sport you’re participating in just really excited to have a place where people will be nice to you rather than the hostile environment you were in before, but soon realize that people are laughing at your bright highlighter green shirt you were so proud of or log onto twitter and see tweets of people saying running isn't a real sport and making fun of it. Now all of a sudden you lost that place you thought you could escape to, too have a fun time but because of these judgmental rude people who don't understand you, you now have little place for self expression. Because when your home you have to worry about not getting into a situation that could end bad and in public when you do decide to be your own person you are scoffed at and made fun of. Yes a very over exaggerated situation but still very possible on a smaller scale.

Now I wanted to bring some personal experiences into this speech so thinking about it I thought I could talk about how in middle school made fun of me for being short or how I was criticized for playing soccer a quote girls sport. But I thought those examples were boring and nobody would want to hear about that so i thought really long and hard about someone who recently judged and criticized me about something i do… then it hit me MY MOM. Now before i start this story i want to make it clear that my mom is a great person and she loves me just not the things i do all the time. So as some of you may know i've been growing out my hair for about 7 months just letting it go and my mom isn't someone who is too fond of it along with some other people. The occasional you look like sideshow bob from the simpsons joke but besides that my mom is probably my number one hater of my style and is always giving me grief about it. So i wanted to help my mom understand that continually judging me for what i like isn’t ok. So i decided to push her buttons a little over the weekend and do something i knew she would not like (PULL OFF HAT) i went and got me hair dyed red. I wanted to do this to really push her over the edge. When i showed her she was not the happiest camper to say the least. After 5 minutes of her telling me what i did was stupid and the occasional you look like a clown joke from my sister in the background I sat her down and talked to her about pretty much everything I just talked about right now. The basic idea of that if I like something I see no reason for her to lecture me about what i did. That if i or someone else likes something i see no reason to make fun of it. And thankfully i think she finally started to understand what i was saying because she then got up patted me on the head and said “then if you like it i like it” So again the america i want to grow up in is a place where everyone can be themselves and not be attacked by people who don’t understand it or just find it weird where everyone is there own person and they don’t have to be scared of self expression. And as for my mom if she ever falls back the method of hating on someone else's interest i can always pull out the hundreds of pictures i assume my mom will take at upcoming graduations where my bright red hair is flowing in the wind just to give her that friendly reminder that it's is not okay.

Thank you