This is for you, Aaron Luke #2

Sunway Public Speaking: Adversity

(Aaron Luke)

Right now, an entire nation is contemplating war, while their citizens have to live with the threat of being annihilated. Right now, someone in the world has just learned that they have a tumour growing in their brain.

            Honourable judges, accurate time-keeper, teachers and fellow friends. Adversity, something I shall be talking to you about, is a challenge that threatens what we have and experience at this very moment. It is a situation that causes us grief and hardship and with no doubt, is a painful experience.

            But looking beyond that surficial pain we go through, if we look deeper this very same adversity we go through is what defines us.

            Take a university student going overseas for studies. Imagine having to be separated from your family and friends, imagine having that feeling of comfort and security stripped away from you. More so, imagine the adversity that student goes through, living off Maggi Mee and reusing dirty underwear day after day.

            As painful as it is to have to cope in a foreign country while still studying, that same excruciating experience is the true lesson for the university student. Through it, he learns to be independent. He learns to throw away old ideas about the world and adapt to the problem at hand. He matures. This is what adversity offers us –growth.

            But better yet, imagine the joy he experiences when he returns home. The feeling of being with family again, enjoying a proper meal, catching up with friends. Had he not left overseas, he would never have the chance to feel this way. Only adversity can provide us the contrast in life, to appreciate the good times.

            In essence, ladies and gentlemen, we have to look beyond the initial suffering we go through. As hard as life can be sometimes, we have to realize a greater good behind it all. As Thomas Kempis said, adversity doesn’t make us frail; it merely shows who we are. Adversity is our teacher, it forces us to grow. More so, adversity allows us to appreciate happiness. It shows us two sides of the coin. Only when we know how tough life could be can we be grateful for how good it is right now.

            Adversity may take away everything from us, but we are only losers if we choose to let it win.

--This was for your first round in Sunway. It was around June 2012, I think. The song Viking by Orjan Nilsen was playing in your head the entire time. You almost lost your bag after the 2nd round ("Bigger is better"), and you thought you won after they called out your name to return the bag. Your final round was about "A man is known by the silence he keeps", and your mum was in the audience. Pn. Chng had to leave. 

The speech was never in the script.