Hey guys, so my friend Nina did a blog post on a speech that we read in 7th grade(which I had totally forgotten by the way) about how no one is special by David McCullough. This is the quote that Nina took for her blog:
“You are not special. You are not exceptional.
Contrary to what your u9 soccer trophy suggests, your glowing seventh grade report card, despite every assurance of a certain corpulent purple dinosaur, that nice Mister Rogers and your batty Aunt Sylvia, no matter how often your maternal caped crusader has swooped in to save you… you’re nothing special.
Yes, you’ve been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble-wrapped. Yes, capable adults with other things to do have held you, kissed you, fed you, wiped your mouth, wiped your bottom, trained you, taught you, tutored you, coached you, listened to you, counseled you, encouraged you, consoled you and encouraged you again. You’ve been nudged, cajoled, wheedled and implored. You’ve been feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie. Yes, you have. And, certainly, we’ve been to your games, your plays, your recitals, your science fairs. Absolutely, smiles ignite when you walk into a room, and hundreds gasp with delight at your every tweet. Why, maybe you’ve even had your picture in the Townsman! And now you’ve conquered high school… and, indisputably, here we all have gathered for you, the pride and joy of this fine community, the first to emerge from that magnificent new building…
But do not get the idea you’re anything special. Because you’re not.
Across the country no fewer than 3.2 million seniors are graduating about now from more than 37,000 high schools. That’s 37,000 valedictorians… 37,000 class presidents… 92,000 harmonizing altos… 340,000 swaggering jocks… 2,185,967 pairs of Uggs. But why limit ourselves to high school? After all, you’re leaving it. So think about this: even if you’re one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you.”
I know this sounds like something that would make grown men cry, but really it has a deeper meaning to it. Nina argues against this speech,because she thinks the only thing his is telling you is that your not special, she says that this speech was about telling naïve teenagers the truth. Well they're not, what he's trying to say is that they aren't special because they haven't done anything in their lives yet that makes them special.
From this excerpt of text, he will seem cruel and just wants to make the teens graduating feel bad, but if you read the rest of the speech, you will see that that's not the case. If you dig deeper into the speech, you see that he isn't trying to put a bunch of 18 year olds down, he's telling them that high school doesn't matter, that if you do something because you are trying to please your family, it's not going to get you very far. Mr. McCullough is saying that if you want to do something do it for you, not for other people, because high school is such a small part of our lives. In 50 years, no one is going to care that you were popular in high school, or that you had the most friends on Instagram. People are going to care about what you did with your life after you graduated; what kind of career you have, or if your doing what you love. All of those people that are doing things because they feel they have to impress someone or show people that they can do it, those are the people who aren't going to do well in life by their standards. Yea they might have a job, but it won't be one they love, because all of the decisions they made earlier in their lives were to please someone else, not themselves.
Nina refuses to believe that we are all identical, she thinks that we are all unique. Well guess what, you are exactly like the next person until you decide do something that makes you special. I'm not talking about leading your team to state for soccer, I'm talking about making a difference. News flash... your not the first person to be team captain of a soccer team, but you could be the first man/woman to set foot on mars. "The fulfilling life, the distinctive life, the relevant life, is an achievement, not something that will fall into your lap because you’re a nice person or mommy ordered it from the caterer. You’ll note the founding fathers took pains to secure your inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" You don't get to be happy because your pretty, you have to work for it.
This speech isn't about telling everyone that they are the same as everyone else, or that you are not unique, Nina says we have to fight this idea of sameness, well how do you do that? We are all the same until we are different. My dad once told me that if I ever wanted to do something with my life, I had to set a goal. He told me to write my own obituary, to write what I wanted to be remembered by, and what I wanted people to say at my funeral, so when I do get there, they do say those things about me. Lead your life by what you want to be remembered by, and by what YOU want to do.
Some people say high school was the best years of their life, and I feel sorry for those people because the most substantial thing they did with their life was climb to the top of the high school popularity pyramid.There obituary would say something like:"John Smith, was popular in high school and got a degree for something he didn't even like to do." The people who had their peak in high school, were the people who let others decide their path for them, instead of taking the reins of their own lives. High school is one big contest, who can get the best grades, who can play a sport, who can get the big clarinet solo at a concert. Yes, high school is a mix of pressure from peers and parents, and it is stressful, but I just want kids to realize that all you have to do is survive. Survive for 4 years without completely screwing your life up, and your out of that forever. After all, high school is only one part of your life, and I intend to make it count for me, not anyone else.
