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Speech - Blog Posts
I stand in front of a crowd and tap the microphone. "Disabled people deserve full bodily autonomy," I announce, and the crowd devolves into shouting. I am being asked about every single contingency in which bodily autonomy can possibly be taken away. I am not allowed to ask these people why they want so badly to control disabled people's lives. I am a representative, after all.
A man in the third row calls me a whore. A woman up near the front calls me a filthy god-hating anarchist. I am the villain of the story. I'm ruining their childhoods when I point out the flaws and ableist tropes in media that I never said they weren't allowed to enjoy. I'm policing their language when I ask them not to use slurs.
Someone else calls me a fascist. A Creationist with Calvinist leanings is using the same arguments against me as the literal social Darwinist. The topic of "faking disability" is brought up and everyone suddenly has a story to share and presents it to me. I am horrified by most of these stories because they feature ambulatory wheelchair users being harassed and young people with invisible disabilities being chased out of bathrooms.
I tap the microphone again and announce, louder, "Autism speaks is actually a hate organization." At this rate, I'm never going to get to my powerpoint on the social/medical model of disability and why the intersection is important. But I am a representative, and in between the name calling and accusations, they are asking me questions. And so I answer.
Important speech from the Whitehouse, (Real) (not fake)
Since TK vs DW vs CBS is somewhat trending after 9 years I would like to say that in hopes that maybe if we all come together as a dying fandom that maybe just maybe, we can bring it back and not for our happiness, but for the sake of all mankind and those poor,poor, edgy goth kids that need 2 priest serial killers for moral support. I have just spoke to the White House about and they said it would be pretty rad if we had a episode 5 and if the world is old enough to see it, a episode 6. May our prayers go the loss of all of those that have stopped to continue the journey of this small community of tf2 freaks. May our hearts go those returning home from those other fandoms. May we as a community seek pride as a independent and industry of mannkind. Thank you and goodnight worldwide.
さくら さくら
今年もこの町に さくらが咲いた
いつも見慣れている散歩道いっぱいに
若やかで どこか懐かしくもあるような
しあわせの色が ぱあっと広がった
高く澄みわたる 青空の下で
花がわらってる 犬もわらってる
光のどけし ああ 春’ing
The cherry blossoms in the famous tourist spots are wonderful and certainly worth seeing.
However, what moves my heart most is the cherry blossoms that bloom on the usual walking paths. It beautifully colors our familiar place and uplifts the feelings of the people who live there.
"Hello! I'm glad to see you again!!"
I greet the flowers that way and sincerely thankful for the spring reunion. Our smiles are in sync and that happy time lasts for about 1 week :-))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISYSCEYcD8o
Verbal Judo
The other day I heard this on the radio while driving:
I was very intrigued by this as I have been a student of "Verbal Judo" for some years now. I work with people a lot, mostly when they are not at their best (I work with the very ill and those who care for them). Also being I am an introvert and that I can be ironically, um, very vocal, having some insight on how to structure speaking with others when I and/or they are not at their best is super helpful. And truly it has been! I prefer the audiobook by the way and listen to it a lot when jogging, driving, or whatever. Whoever they got to read it I thought was the author reading his own book so it is a very good listen.
Anyway, back to the intrigue of the podcast. When I heard this piece I wondered if this helped shape or influence Mr. Thompson's passion to create a learnable structure for better communication especially in stressful moments ("Verbal Judo").
I'm going to give this podcast a listen and let you know what I learn. If you have listened, no spoilers please!
“The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
"I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality." ~J.K. Rowling, Harvard Commencement Address 2008
#Repost @theveganleo ・・・ Damn Dr. Neal Barnard Thuggin... Wait for it ------------- Consumption of processed meat was classified as carcinogenic and red meat as probably carcinogenic after the IARC Working Group – comprised of 22 scientists from ten countries – evaluated over 800 studies. Conclusions were primarily based on the evidence for colorectal cancer. Data also showed positive associations between processed meat consumption and stomach cancer, and between red meat consumption and pancreatic and prostate cancer. - https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2015/11/03/report-says-eating-processed-meat-is-carcinogenic-understanding-the-findings/ ----- Harvard studies showed that daily meat eaters have approximately three times the colon cancer risk, compared to those who rarely eat meat. - http://www.pcrm.org/health/cancer-resources/diet-cancer/facts/meat-consumption-and-cancer-risk #damn #nochill #veganaf #meme #dank #thuglife #veganmeme #cancer #bacon #sausage #pepperoni #pizza #hotdog #worldhealthorganization #nealbarnard #thuglife #biggie #hypnotized #humor #facts #whoa #official #speech #doctor #lawsuit #plantbased #kids #school #future
I had a speech when I graduated (it was a week or so ago) but they didn’t let the seniors do speeches so heres mine:
I’m thankful for my parents, my friends, and family for being a great influence, and to push me to do my greatest. If someone in your life, family or friends, wants you to be someone you are not, just remember. You don’t own them your life or your happiness. As Maya Angelou once said,” Nothing can dim the light that shines within you.” Looking at you mother.
“No. You seek glory for yourself. And you would win it off the backs of my people!”
- Princess Jasmine
I love this moment in Aladdin. The way she says ‘my people!’ so intensely and passionately is perfection.
Autism acceptance includes accepting all autistic manners of communication.
That means supporting autistic people who talk in a "very childish" way. (I do this a lot irl)
Autistic people who do "TV talking" (this means talking like a character from your favorite media,basically talking in quotes and copying their speech patterns,as far as I know)
Autistic people who use echolia.
Autistic people who are very awkward/quirky when they communicate.
Autistic people who are overly technical,or have very sophisticated and articulate speech.
Autistic people who mumble.
Autistic people who talk really fast.
Autistic people who can't control their tone of voice/inflection.
Autistic people who talk in a monotone voice.
Autistic people who use different kind of sounds,or body language to communicate.
Autistic people who talk slowly and draw out their syllables.
Autistic people who use a lot of sentance fillers.
Autistic people who use Aac devices,communication cards,etc etc.
Edit: acceptance of nonverbal autistics is also necessary. Nonverbal people deserve love,respect,acceptance,accommodation and support.
As I began to love myself
I found that anguish and emotional suffering are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth. Today, I know, this is "AUTHENTICITY".
As I began to love myself
I understood how much it can offend somebody as I try to force my desires on this person, even though I knew the time was not right and the person was not ready for it, and even though this person was me. Today I call it "RESPECT".
As I began to love myself
I stopped craving for a different life, and I could see that everything that surrounded me was inviting me to grow. Today I call it "MATURITY".
As I began to love myself
I understood that at any circumstance, I am in the right place at the right time, and everything happens at the exactly right moment. So I could be calm. Today I call it "SELF-CONFIDENCE".
As I began to love myself
I quit steeling my own time, and I stopped designing huge projects for the future. Today, I only do what brings me joy and happiness, things I love to do and that make my heart cheer, and I do them in my own way and in my own rhythm. Today I call it "SIMPLICITY".
As I began to love myself
I freed myself of anything that is no good for my health – food, people, things, situations, and everything the drew me down and away from myself. At first I called this attitude a healthy egoism. Today I know it is "LOVE OF ONESELF".
As I began to love myself
I quit trying to always be right, and ever since I was wrong less of the time. Today I discovered that is "MODESTY".
As I began to love myself
I refused to go on living in the past and worry about the future. Now, I only live for the moment, where everything is happening. Today I live each day, day by day, and I call it "FULFILLMENT".
As I began to love myself
I recognized that my mind can disturb me and it can make me sick. But as I connected it to my heart, my mind became a valuable ally. Today I call this connection "WISDOM OF THE HEART".
We no longer need to fear arguments, confrontations or any kind of problems with ourselves or others. Even stars collide, and out of their crashing new worlds are born. Today I know that is "LIFE"!
You know what’s fucked up to me? That I feel the need—now want, but in the beginning it was a feeling that it was my onus to fight. I grew up too fast, faced and burdened by the cruelties of the world. As a kid, I never wanted anything more than simplicity. Now? I feel it’s my duty—a chore, it seems at times—to worry myself to insanity over people I don’t know. I turn on the news and you know what I see? Chaos. Not controlled chaos. No. Pure, unrelenting, pain-fuelled chaos. My aspirations are now to go to law school instead of become a teacher or something simple that I’d enjoy. Not because of the money, no that’s not why I want to be a lawyer, but because I feel I owe it to the people who take the hate and violence I’m too scared to admit I should be shouldering too. These people came out and, even though there was the chance—almost guarantee—that they’d face violence, prejudice, hate, and be stripped of basic human rights. I should still be able to be a kid. Not because of my age or immaturity. But because I should be able to enjoy life; not fear it.
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Bill Murray Crashes Bachelor Party, Gives Awesome Speech - Video
Bring Me The Horizon - Hospital For Souls
24/100 days of productivity
Today I've been put through 3 tests for physics, calculus, and English. I am just a tad upset that I got a B on one of them... oh well, that just means I have to practice it more! Expecting the weekend schedule I set up, it will be productive but somewhat difficult since I get distracted easily... but it is best to work through the weekend to have the week cleared out! Preparing my response to the discussion for speech and documents for my essay, needless to say I am worried about them but I will prevail! Hopefully... Keep Positive vibes~~~
Olympian Abby Wambach’s Barnard College Graduation Speech Transcript
Greetings to President Beilock, Barnard faculty, trustees, and honorees: Katherine Johnson, Anna Quindlen, and Rhea Suh.
And to each of the 619 bad-ass women of the Barnard graduating class of 2018: Congratulations!
Doesn’t it feel like the second you figure anything out in life, it ends and you’re forced to start all over again?
Experts call these times of life “transitions.” I call them terrifying.
I went through a terrifying transition recently when I retired from soccer.
The world tries to distract us from our fear during these transitions by creating fancy ceremonies for us. This graduation is your fancy ceremony. Mine was the ESPYs, a nationally televised sports award show. I had to get dressed up for that just like you got dressed up for this, but they sent me a really expensive fancy stylist. It doesn’t look like you all got one. Sorry about that.
So it went like this: ESPN called and told me they were going to honor me with their inaugural icon award. I was humbled, of course, to be regarded as an icon. Did I mention that I’m an icon?
I received my award along with two other incredible athletes: basketball’s Kobe Bryant and football’s Peyton Manning. We all stood on stage together and watched highlights of our careers with the cameras rolling and the fans cheering—and I looked around and had a moment of awe. I felt so grateful to be there—included in the company of Kobe and Peyton. I had a momentary feeling of having arrived: like we women had finally made it.
Then the applause ended and it was time for the three of us to exit stage left. And as I watched those men walk off the stage, it dawned on me that the three of us were stepping away into very different futures.
Each of us, Kobe, Peyton and I—we made the same sacrifices, we shed the same amount of blood sweat and tears, we’d left it all on the field for decades with the same ferocity, talent and commitment—but our retirements wouldn’t be the same at all. Because Kobe and Peyton walked away from their careers with something I didn’t have: enormous bank accounts. Because of that they had something else I didn’t have: freedom. Their hustling days were over; mine were just beginning.
Later that night, back in my hotel room, I laid in bed and thought: this isn’t just about me, and this isn’t just about soccer.
We talk a lot about the pay gap. We talk about how we U.S. women overall still earn only 80 cents on the dollar compared to men, and black women make only 63 cents, while Latinas make 54 cents. What we need to talk about more is the aggregate and compounding effects of the pay gap on women’s lives. Over time, the pay gap means women are able to invest less and save less so they have to work longer. When we talk about what the pay gap costs us, let's be clear. It costs us our very lives.
And it hit me that I’d spent most of my time during my career the same way I'd spent my time on that ESPYs stage. Just feeling grateful. Grateful to be one of the only women to have a seat at the table. I was so grateful to receive any respect at all for myself that I often missed opportunities to demand equality for all of us.
But as you know, women of Barnard—CHANGE. IS. HERE.
Women have learned that we can be grateful for what we have while also demanding what we deserve.
Like all little girls, I was taught to be grateful. I was taught to keep my head down, stay on the path, and get my job done. I was freaking Little Red Riding Hood.
You know the fairy tale: It’s just one iteration of the warning stories girls are told the world over. Little Red Riding Hood heads off through the woods and is given strict instructions: Stay on the path. Don’t talk to anybody. Keep your head down hidden underneath your Handmaid’s Tale cape.
And she does… at first. But then she dares to get a little curious and she ventures off the path. That’s of course when she encounters the Big Bad Wolf and all hell breaks loose. The message is clear: Don’t be curious, don’t make trouble, don’t say too much or BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN.
I stayed on the path out of fear, not of being eaten by a wolf, but of being cut, being benched, losing my paycheck.
If I could go back and tell my younger self one thing it would be this:
“Abby, you were never Little Red Riding Hood; you were always the wolf.”
So when I was entrusted with the honor of speaking here today, I decided that the most important thing for me to say to you is this:
BARNARD WOMEN—CLASS OF 2018—WE. ARE. THE. WOLVES.
In 1995, around the year of your birth, wolves were re-introduced into Yellowstone National Park after being absent for seventy years.
In those years, the number of deer had skyrocketed because they were unchallenged, alone at the top of the food chain. They grazed away and reduced the vegetation, so much that the river banks were eroding.
Once the wolves arrived, they thinned out the deer through hunting. But more significantly, their presence changed the behavior of the deer. Wisely, the deer started avoiding the valleys, and the vegetation in those places regenerated. Trees quintupled in just six years. Birds and beavers started moving in. The river dams the beavers built provided habitats for otters and ducks and fish. The animal ecosystem regenerated. But that wasn’t all. The rivers actually changed as well. The plant regeneration stabilized the river banks so they stopped collapsing. The rivers steadied—all because of the wolves’ presence.
See what happened here?
The wolves, who were feared as a threat to the system, turned out to be its salvation.
Barnard women, are you picking up what I’m laying down here?
Women are feared as a threat to our system—and we will also be our society’s salvation.
Our landscape is overrun with archaic ways of thinking about women, about people of color, about the “other,” about the rich and the poor, about the the powerful and the powerless—and these ways of thinking are destroying us.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
We will not Little Red Riding Hood our way through life. We will unite our pack, storm the valley together and change the whole bloody system.
Throughout my life, my pack has been my team.
Teams need a unifying structure, and the best way to create one collective heartbeat is to establish rules for your team to live by. It doesn’t matter what specific page you’re all on, just as long as you’re all on the same one.
Here are four rules I’ve used to unite my pack and lead them to gold.
Rule One: MAKE FAILURE YOUR FUEL
Here’s something the best athletes understand, but seems like a hard concept for non-athletes to grasp. Non-athletes don’t know what to do with the gift of failure. So they hide it, pretend it never happened, reject it outright—and they end up wasting it.
Listen: Failure is not something to be ashamed of, it's something to be POWERED by. Failure is the highest octane fuel your life can run on. You gotta learn to make failure your fuel.
When I was on the Youth National Team, only dreaming of playing alongside Mia Hamm. You know her? Good. I had the opportunity to visit the National Team’s locker room. The thing that struck me most wasn’t my heroes' grass-stained cleats or their names and numbers hanging above their lockers—it was a picture. It was a picture that someone had taped next to the door so that It would be the last thing every player saw before she headed out to the training pitch.
You might guess it was a picture of their last big win, of them standing on a podium accepting gold medals—but it wasn’t. It was a picture of their longtime rival—the Norwegian national team—celebrating after having just beaten the USA in the 1995 World Cup.
In that locker room, I learned that in order to become my very best—on the pitch and off—I’d need to spend my life letting the feelings and lessons of failure transform into my power. Failure is fuel. Fuel is power.
Women, listen to me. We must embrace failure as our fuel instead of accepting it as our destruction.
As Michelle Obama recently said: "I wish that girls could fail as well as men do and be okay. Because let me tell you watching men fail up—it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating to see men blow it and win. And we hold ourselves to these crazy, crazy standards."
Wolf Pack: Fail up. Blow it, and win.
Rule Two: LEAD FROM THE BENCH
Imagine this: You’ve scored more goals than any human being on the planet—female or male. You’ve co-captained and led Team USA in almost every category for the past decade. And you and your coach sit down and decide together that you won’t be a starter in your last World Cup for Team USA.
So… that sucked.
You’ll feel benched sometimes, too. You’ll be passed over for the promotion, taken off the project—you might even find yourself holding a baby instead of a briefcase—watching your colleagues “get ahead.”
Here’s what’s important. You are allowed to be disappointed when it feels like life’s benched you. What you aren’t allowed to do is miss your opportunity to lead from the bench.
During that last World Cup, my teammates told me that my presence, my support, my vocal and relentless belief in them from the bench is what gave them the confidence they needed to win us that championship.
If you’re not a leader on the bench, don’t call yourself a leader on the field. You’re either a leader everywhere or nowhere.
And by the way: the fiercest leading I’ve ever seen has been done between mother and child. Parenting is no bench. It just might be the big game.
Wolf Pack: Wherever you’re put, lead from there.
Rule Three: CHAMPION EACH OTHER
During every 90-minute soccer match there are a few magical moments when the ball actually hits the back of the net and a goal is scored. When this happens, it means that everything has come together perfectly—the perfect pass, the perfectly timed run, every player in the right place at exactly the right time: all of this culminating in a moment in which one player scores that goal.
What happens next on the field is what transforms a bunch of individual women into a team. Teammates from all over the field rush toward the goal scorer. It appears that we’re celebrating her: but what we’re REALLY celebrating is every player, every coach, every practice, every sprint, every doubt, and every failure that this one single goal represents.
You will not always be the goal scorer. And when you are not—you better be rushing toward her.
Women must champion each other. This can be difficult for us. Women have been pitted against each other since the beginning of time for that one seat at the table. Scarcity has been planted inside of us and among us. This scarcity is not our fault. But it is our problem. And it is within our power to create abundance for women where scarcity used to live.
As you go out into the world: Amplify each others’ voices. Demand seats for women, people of color and all marginalized people at every table where decisions are made. Call out each other’s wins and just like we do on the field: claim the success of one woman, as a collective success for all women.
Joy. Success. Power. These are not pies where a bigger slice for her means a smaller slice for you. These are infinite. In any revolution, the way to make something true starts with believing it is. Let’s claim infinite joy, success, and power—together.
Wolf Pack: Her Victory is your Victory. Celebrate it.
Rule Four: DEMAND THE BALL
When I was a teenager, I was lucky enough to play with one of my heroes, Michelle Akers. She needed a place to train since there was not yet a women’s professional league. Michelle was tall like I am, built like I’d be built, and the most courageous soccer player I’d ever seen play. She personified every one of my dreams.
We were playing a small sided scrimmage—5 against 5. We were eighteen-year-olds and she was—Michelle Akers—a chiseled, thirty-year-old powerhouse. For the first three quarters of the game, she was taking it easy on us, coaching us, teaching us about spacing, timing and the tactics of the game.
By the fourth quarter, she realized that because of all of this coaching, her team was losing by three goals. In that moment, a light switched on inside of her.
She ran back to her own goalkeeper, stood one yard away from her, and screamed:
GIVE. ME. THE. EFFING. BALL.
And the goalkeeper gave her the effing ball.
And she took that ball and she dribbled through our entire effing team and she scored.
Now this game was winner’s keepers, so if you scored you got the ball back. So, as soon as Michelle scored, she ran back to her goalie, stood a yard away from her and screamed:
GIVE ME THE BALL.
The keeper did. And again she dribbled though us and scored. And then she did it again. And she took her team to victory.
Michelle Akers knew what her team needed from her at every moment of that game.
Don't forget that until the fourth quarter, leadership had required Michelle to help, support, and teach, but eventually leadership called her to demand the ball.
Women. At this moment in history leadership is calling us to say:
GIVE ME THE EFFING BALL.
GIVE ME THE EFFING JOB.
GIVE ME THE SAME PAY THAT THE GUY NEXT TO ME GETS.
GIVE ME THE PROMOTION.
GIVE ME THE MICROPHONE.
GIVE ME THE OVAL OFFICE.
GIVE ME THE RESPECT I’VE EARNED AND GIVE IT TO MY WOLF PACK TOO.
In closing, I want to leave you with the most important thing I’ve learned since leaving soccer.
When I retired, my sponsor Gatorade surprised me at a meeting with the plan for my send-off commercial. The message was this: Forget Me.
They’d nailed it. They knew I wanted my legacy to be ensuring the future success of the sport I’d dedicated my life to. If my name were forgotten, that would mean that the women who came behind me were breaking records, winning championships and pushing the game to new heights. When I shot that commercial I cried.
A year later, I found myself coaching my ten-year old daughter’s soccer team. I’d coached them all the way to the championship. (#Humblebrag.) One day I was warming the team up, doing a little shooting drill. I was telling them a story about when I retired. And one of those little girls looked up at me and said: “So what did you retire from?” And I looked down at her and I said, “SOCCER.” And she said, “Oh. Who did you play for?” And I said, “THE. UNITED. STATES. OF. AMERICA.” And she said, “Oh. Does that mean you know Alex Morgan?”
Be careful what you wish for, Barnard. They forgot me.
But that’s okay. Being forgotten in my retirement didn’t scare me. What scared me was losing the identity the game gave me. I defined myself as Abby Wambach, soccer player—the one who showed up and gave 100 percent to my team and fought alongside my wolf pack to make a better future for the next generation.
Without soccer who would I be?
A few months after retirement, I began creating my new life. I met Glennon and our three children and I became a wife, a mother, a business owner and an activist.
And you know who I am now? I’m still the same Abby. I still show up and give 100 percent—now to my new pack—and I still fight every day to make a better future for the next generation.
You see, soccer didn’t make me who I was. I brought who I was to soccer, and I get to bring who I am wherever I go. And guess what? So do you.
As you leave here today and everyday going forward: Don’t just ask yourself, “What do I want to do?” Ask yourself: “WHO do I want to be?” Because the most important thing I've learned is that what you do will never define you. Who you are always will.
And who you are—Barnard women—are the wolves.
Surrounding you today is your wolf pack. Look around.
Don’t lose each other.
Leave these sacred grounds united, storm the valleys together, and be our salvation.
I just remembered that a couple days ago, I wrote a speech from the perspective of the Lucky Charms mascot (L.C. Leprechaun). It was about him suing three kids for harassment and stuff like that.
And then I delivered the speech in A BAD IRISH ACCENT IN FRONT OF MY WHOLE CLASS (per my teachers request) and I am going to get an actual grade for it. HAHAHA guess who's failing public speaking
Illustration for a Times Higher Education article called 'The Power Of Voice', which is about a group of University lecturers that dared to speak up to overthrow the decision to merge their courses.
John Cleese - “A Lecture on Creativity”
“Creativity is not a talent, it is a way of operating.”
I dedicate this to all the indigenous kids in the world who want to do art and dance and write stories; we are the original storytellers and we can make it here, as well.
—- Taika Waititi, winner of Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars 2020
"I am grateful that so many of you have given me a second chance and I think that is when we are at our best - when we support each other. Not when we cancel each other out for past mistakes, but when we help each other to grow."
— Joaquin Phoenix
SHE JUST DID THAT YASSSSSS @taylorswift doing whatever the HELL SHE WANTS BITCHES
Heyy so I need to give a speech for my English class but I can’t come up with any topics do you have any suggestions? (The topic has to be about a problem and interesting to my classmates) 🩷
Hello! :)
I hope this helps! <3
Education:
How education can solve generational poverty?
How the current education system is not flexible enough for people with disability (physical and mental) including LDs and mental illnesses?
Why the current education system is not suitable for the modern day youth?
Even though the literacy rate has gone up in the last 30 years, lack of jobs and unemployment are still high and situations like under employment is on the rise.
Health:
The rise in obesity and it's connection with lifestyle diseases.
The interrelationship better physical and mental health and how it is affecting work/study areas in our lives.
Sleep deprivation among students/employees gone up affecting their health and overall development.
Environment:
Overfishing
Ozone layer depletion
Deforestation
Technology:
How modern technology is affecting unemployment negatively.
A pandemic of adversity due to social media
Cyberbullying/cyber stalking/harassment
Social:
Migration (rural to urban -> urban congestion)
Gender inequality
Feminism
Overpopulation
Miscellaneous:
Beauty pageants objectifying women
Addictions (video game/ social media/ alcohol etc)
Traffic jams
Choosing the right career path for the modern job market
These are all i could think of. Hope you do well on your speech! :)