Wednesday 14 February 2018

Hopefully Inspirational

Hey everyone!

Look at me, posting twice in the same week! Hope you guys are doing great and are assaulted by good energy only!

As mentioned in a previous post, I graduated high school. What I failed to mention, however, was that I graduated as Topper (or Valedictorian). In line with school tradition, I was invited as Chief Guest for my school's Republic Day Celebration and asked to give a speech. Since obtaining the video from the school's authorities may take a few decades, allow me to present the transcript instead!

Enjoy!

Teachers, Parents, Guests and Students, 
First of all, thank you. Thank you for this incredible honour - my younger self would have killed for this opportunity. In all honesty, I struggled to write this speech. I was racked with fear and nausea, because I couldn’t decide: what is the perfect topic for this immensely important occasion? What will interest a crowd so varied in gender and age? I would like to inspire you with a fiery Steve Jobs-type speech that will drive you to write the next Nobel Prizes-winning book. But I doubt I can, so allow me to talk about something a little different. 
For the past 12 years, like most of you here, I’ve battled homework by day, deadlines by night. I’ve wasted time on Instagram and studied till two am. I’ve put my blood, sweat and tears into projects and assignments. I would’ve been crushed by the pressure if it weren’t for one thing: people. While most inspirational speeches focus on success, ambition, fire, goals, motivation and numbers, the most underestimated item on that should be on that list is people. 
Every day, as I climbed up those stairs on that block to the IB classrooms, I would see my classmates sitting in groups, hopefully surrounded by textbooks, the air energetic with talk of thin film interference, organic chemistry and, who am I kidding, the newest movies too. There is always something refreshing about this moment, because it shows how strength is in solidarity, how youthful spirit can ease pressure. As I look back at these 12 years, it is not my grades or awards that I remember, but the time my friend taught me physics or when we joked about how school was basically ‘12 Years A Slave’(it isn't!). Or when we begged the teacher to let us go early for lunch for the biriyani, and when we struggled to climb the stairs afterwards because we ate too much.  No number can quantize the special relationship I share with each teacher here, the hours spent in their cabins figuring out a difficult math problem or discussing my assignment. No number can quantize how much I depended on the lab akka (assistant) to finish my experiments – she always had way more common sense than I did.
As of today, it’s been nearly two months since I finished school, and 68 years since India implemented the Constitution. Both India and I haven’t stabilized ourselves yet. We stumble in the dark, but our freedom lies in the heat of youthful spirit, ambition and people. It is spirit that sustains us, inspires us, propels us, that keeps us hungry for more.

Now I doubt if you listened to this entire speech – if you haven’t, I ask that you remember this: never settle, choose to be extraordinary, but do so with the strength of spirit and people backing you.
Awkwardly waiting for a cue.

Talking: be it to huge crowd or a single guinea pig, I really get invested in it.
See ya soon! 

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