I have always posted original work but I today I am offering up a speech done by my son, Joshua, when he was 13 years old. I have two reasons for posting this work. First, normal fatherly pride and second, it dovetails nicely into my next post (details withheld at this juncture).
It's called Be Different, by Joshua M. (Please do not copy/steal, for this speech is my son's and I am placing his copyright on it right here)
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Before I begin, I wish to have your full attention. Now, I want to give you a task, so listen closely. With my words, I want you to compare them to whom you are now, and how other people see you. Simply picture yourself in the places I will ask of you to be in, not as a hypothesis, but as a demonstration of the truth. Now then, teachers, judges, fellow classmates and all fellow people of the world, my name is Joshua Mitchell, and I wish for you to never forget that name, as I wish for nobody to forget yours either. I want to be remembered long after I die, and I want to be remembered as more than 'just another person'.
How many people are in this world? What is it now, seven-billion or more? And among those, how many of you are there, as a person? I think it's one, or something close, not too sure. Either way, how many gallons of water are there in the sea? Or grains of rice in bag? Many. It doesn't seem to matter if you drained a gallon of water from the sea, nor if you spilled a single grain of rice. Well, really, how is any of it different than a single person living a normal, albeit mediocre, life ? I mean, with all these people in the world, one of them doesn't really matter. But, what if you were simply a grain of rice? If you had dropped on the floor, nobody's going to really care, would they? Unless, of course, that grain of rice was actually a pebble of gold.
'What's your point?,' you may be asking. It's simple.
I don't want to be a grain of rice, a chunk of salt or a star in the sky. I want to be the shining sun that outshines any candlelight in the daytime sky. We all want to be suns, but alas, we aren't. But do we want to be forgotten? Never. But out of the billions of people living in the world and the billions dead, with all these famous names such as Aristotle, Micheal Jackson and Abraham Lincoln, can we really make a name for ourselves ?
Yes, yes we utmost definitely can. But how?
By being different. There are hundreds of artists, poets, musicians, intellectuals, etc in the world, but just because many of them can think but can't do big, and neither can we, it doesn't mean we cannot think of the present, and our own community.
The point is, that you must be different, be absolutely different. If you're quiet, and I know many of you are, be loud, for the world is a crowded room of people saying their name. Some speak, some yell and scream, some can buy megaphones, but some, likely you, whisper their names. We whisper because we don't have the courage to be ourselves. That's the number one step. You might say 'But I am myself, I am quiet', you're wrong. Every human mind screams equally as loud as each other, it's those who are willing to speak equally as loud that are heard. Writers, artists, politicians, inventors, company founders, mathematicians, teachers, scientists, doctors, electricians, lawyers, kings, comedians and even cooks all express their ideas, and many of them do it loudly.
But I'm not telling you to think of the future, think of the present.
Be extremely different! Do community service, persuade others to do things, explain your thoughts, dress like an alien, have a different hairstyle every day, end every sentence with the phrase 'da ze', talk to anybody about anything, search for aliens, practice magic tricks, sing in your favorite language, show your face, humiliate yourself, do ANYTHING to get people's attention! Don't be afraid to embarrass yourself, for it's better than not being noticed at all.
"Life is what we make it , always has been, always will be." That was the quote of the day when I started writing this after lying in my basement trying to come up with a speech topic. That quote was by none other than Grandma Moses, a woman who entered an art career at an advanced age, whose pictures had become famous simply because she had a joy for art, of which she expressed even when she was old and retired. See, she wanted to make a name for herself, and she did alright. And what she did was a fact, always has been, always will be. Anything that happens in real life, anything you do, no matter how unnoticed it may be, will be a fact, it always has been, and always will be, and that is irreversible.
Did you live your life whispering? Or did you live life shouting? Are you a grain of white rice, or will you be a grain of brown rice mixed in a white batch?
If you are, your contrast is just as golden as a shining sun.
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(Yes, I know there are some errors but overall I think the message is pretty clear.)
My son has reminded me to make my voice heard because anything that I want to say can and will matter. I, too, will strive to leave my mark in this world.
It's called Be Different, by Joshua M. (Please do not copy/steal, for this speech is my son's and I am placing his copyright on it right here)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before I begin, I wish to have your full attention. Now, I want to give you a task, so listen closely. With my words, I want you to compare them to whom you are now, and how other people see you. Simply picture yourself in the places I will ask of you to be in, not as a hypothesis, but as a demonstration of the truth. Now then, teachers, judges, fellow classmates and all fellow people of the world, my name is Joshua Mitchell, and I wish for you to never forget that name, as I wish for nobody to forget yours either. I want to be remembered long after I die, and I want to be remembered as more than 'just another person'.
How many people are in this world? What is it now, seven-billion or more? And among those, how many of you are there, as a person? I think it's one, or something close, not too sure. Either way, how many gallons of water are there in the sea? Or grains of rice in bag? Many. It doesn't seem to matter if you drained a gallon of water from the sea, nor if you spilled a single grain of rice. Well, really, how is any of it different than a single person living a normal, albeit mediocre, life ? I mean, with all these people in the world, one of them doesn't really matter. But, what if you were simply a grain of rice? If you had dropped on the floor, nobody's going to really care, would they? Unless, of course, that grain of rice was actually a pebble of gold.
'What's your point?,' you may be asking. It's simple.
I don't want to be a grain of rice, a chunk of salt or a star in the sky. I want to be the shining sun that outshines any candlelight in the daytime sky. We all want to be suns, but alas, we aren't. But do we want to be forgotten? Never. But out of the billions of people living in the world and the billions dead, with all these famous names such as Aristotle, Micheal Jackson and Abraham Lincoln, can we really make a name for ourselves ?
Yes, yes we utmost definitely can. But how?
By being different. There are hundreds of artists, poets, musicians, intellectuals, etc in the world, but just because many of them can think but can't do big, and neither can we, it doesn't mean we cannot think of the present, and our own community.
The point is, that you must be different, be absolutely different. If you're quiet, and I know many of you are, be loud, for the world is a crowded room of people saying their name. Some speak, some yell and scream, some can buy megaphones, but some, likely you, whisper their names. We whisper because we don't have the courage to be ourselves. That's the number one step. You might say 'But I am myself, I am quiet', you're wrong. Every human mind screams equally as loud as each other, it's those who are willing to speak equally as loud that are heard. Writers, artists, politicians, inventors, company founders, mathematicians, teachers, scientists, doctors, electricians, lawyers, kings, comedians and even cooks all express their ideas, and many of them do it loudly.
But I'm not telling you to think of the future, think of the present.
Be extremely different! Do community service, persuade others to do things, explain your thoughts, dress like an alien, have a different hairstyle every day, end every sentence with the phrase 'da ze', talk to anybody about anything, search for aliens, practice magic tricks, sing in your favorite language, show your face, humiliate yourself, do ANYTHING to get people's attention! Don't be afraid to embarrass yourself, for it's better than not being noticed at all.
"Life is what we make it , always has been, always will be." That was the quote of the day when I started writing this after lying in my basement trying to come up with a speech topic. That quote was by none other than Grandma Moses, a woman who entered an art career at an advanced age, whose pictures had become famous simply because she had a joy for art, of which she expressed even when she was old and retired. See, she wanted to make a name for herself, and she did alright. And what she did was a fact, always has been, always will be. Anything that happens in real life, anything you do, no matter how unnoticed it may be, will be a fact, it always has been, and always will be, and that is irreversible.
Did you live your life whispering? Or did you live life shouting? Are you a grain of white rice, or will you be a grain of brown rice mixed in a white batch?
If you are, your contrast is just as golden as a shining sun.
_______________________________________________________________________
(Yes, I know there are some errors but overall I think the message is pretty clear.)
My son has reminded me to make my voice heard because anything that I want to say can and will matter. I, too, will strive to leave my mark in this world.
WoW I was not just impressed but AMAZED....excellent message! And when the message is excellent, so called errors are so trivial as to be completely unnoticed ....I've always said, If given the "privilege" of speaking before an audience, have a message WORTHY of your audience...this message shared in this speech was WORTHY of its audience in SPADES...thank you Joshua for having the courage to be a rice grain of gold amongst a bag of white rice...and thank you for reminding us, (kids and adults alike) that that is worth striving for!
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