Speech: To The Last Syllable of Recorded Time

While trying to clear some space and sorting out my files on the laptop I decided to upload a few of my speeches. 

SECONDARY SCHOOL PRIZE GIVING

Hello and Good evening.

As always I appreciate being asked to speak to such wonderful and awesome individuals such as yourselves.

Another year is done and it is time to honour those who seized every moment to achieve their goals.

Firstly I want to say thank you to Mrs. Coetzee for all her incredible and unrelenting effort in making this night special for those here tonight.

I also want to thank Mr. Rigby as the principal of the elementary school for being a constant source of hope and inspiration to us all.

Now—to the matter at hand.

Tonight not simply about awards and trophies.

Don’t worry you’ll get all those things too. But tonight is about more than that. Tonight is about showing you that others have taken notice of your great deeds.

Many times it becomes easy to lose hope or steer off track because you start to think “why am I putting in all this effort if nobody cares, if no-one notice.”

I telling you now. We have taken notice we do most certainly care about all you wild and wonderful creatures here who work so hard to become the best that you can be. We know it’s not always easy. We know that there are ups and downs in your life and maybe a few lefts and rights.

And we know that there were times that it would have been so much easier to just say…

NOPE! Not gonna happen. Times when you wanted to just throw over your desk, burn all your books and dance merrily around the fire in the moonlight. Saying things like “yeah!! How do you like those thermodynamics?”

Times when you just wanted to give up and go to bed.

But you didn’t! You stood your ground every step of the way. Come rain or sand or snow, or even that really intense fish smell from the harbour you didn’t give in.

And that is why we are here tonight, what we are truly celebrating. Tonight you’re going to take your certificate, medal or trophy or whatever and you’re going to go home. You’ll find a nice spot to put it and show it to everyone proudly. But you’ll realize that those things mean less to you than the ability to look yourself in the mirror and say

“Damn, you are awesome”

And you’ll be right. You are awesome. You are incredible. You set out and achieved something through hard work. You had to suffer through fear and people telling you that you can’t reach your goal. It’s impossible. You nodded your head and did it anyway and came out on top. That is what you earned and that is why you are here.

As much as tonight is about celebrating past victories it’s also a reminder that the road ahead is full of peril. But if you know what lies ahead and know who you truly are you will not have to fear the outcome of a hundred battles.

If you arm yourself with the right tools, then nothing will be able to stand in your way.

There are 5 things needed to become the best you that you possibly can be.

On your long and winding road strength, courage, mastery and honour are the tools and weapons of the modern warrior. And the good thing is it never runs out of ammo.

Some of you mathemagicians out there noticed that I said five and counted four. The final piece is to become antifragile – more on that later.

As with all things proper it is best to start at the start.

So we’ll start with strength. There are many different kinds of strength and you will need to be able to rely on your strength to carry you through the days to come. Strength of character is to be able to stay true to your beliefs and ideals while everyone else falls in with the crowd. Strength is important to protect, to create and to keep on keeping on even when all you want to do is go home have a chockie and watch TV. Strength is the ability to pick yourself up one more time after being knocked down, failure after failure never giving up and never giving in.

Courage. Courage is needed in all things. It’s easy when you’ve come so far to want to wait, to rest, just a little instead of putting one foot in front of the other, to step into the unknown. Courage is taking on the big challenges and seeing it through to the end.

You can all be whatever you want to be. You have that potential. I know it, you know, we see it. It is there.

You can shed your prisons and fly
You can depart the earth and kiss the sky
Because in each of you there is a creature free
That is not trapped at birth by destiny.

MASTERY. To master something is to gain complete understanding and awareness of it. You must master yourself as well as your environment. You all have great potential but you’re not perfect – I know it seems difficult to believe, but it’s true.

Too many times have we lost control because of this or that. Because of he/she/them/they/it because we could not control ourselves because we didn’t prepare.

HONOUR is very important. We are people living in a world full of other people all of whom are looking out for themselves and no one else. Try s you might no-one can always stand alone. We need the love of others and rely on the kindness of strangers. If you can’t show them the way of honesty, of staying true to your word, showing discipline and respect. If you are unable to forgive or help then why should any of them do the same. Honour is who you are when no-one is looking. It starts in the beginning of the day and not when it is most convenient. Be the change you wish to see in others.

Now for Antifragile. When something is fragile it breaks easily when put under pressure and has no potential to become something more.

You need to be the opposite. You need to become antifragile. When you are tried and tested, when burdened with so much you will become stronger for it. You will fall and stumble as we all do but you will not let the bad days be the boss of you. You learn from your mistakes when you make them. You get up and try again and again and you will never stop growing stronger, ever.

Stay true to who you are. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst. In the fell clutch of circumstance, you neither winch nor cry aloud. You are the master of your fate and captain of your soul.

I expect great things from you all in the future.

Reach for the future with the same determination that you have already shown and others will follow your example.

Be safe, be happy and keep on being that incredibly wonderful and amazing you that you are.

Bye for now.