Just one more time (a 5 minutes 30 seconds prepared speech I recently presented)

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

Good morning Contest Chair, ladies and gentlemen and my fellow friends that have ever encountered failures in life.

I would like to ask how many of you, at any point of your life have dreams and ambitions? Ladies and gentlemen, I have a dream, and I have always dream to become a stand-up comedian. Where I can stand on a huge stage, wearing my 900 dollar coat, in front of 1000 thousand live audience, 6 spotlights, 7 cameras, 2 musical bands, and when I walk upon the stage, people would actually stand up and shout and jump and clap and cheer for me……

It’s good to have a dream.

It is fun, it is natural, and it is free. Every notable accomplishment in human history began as a dream.

But sometimes when dreams meet reality. It is not as beautiful as we think it is. As we grow older by the day, we turn our focus to adulthood, and when we realize that by the time we actually get older, we hit a wall, and we stop dreaming because we can’t see pass next week. Why? What happen? Somewhere along the way we learnt a painful truth. We learn that failing to achieve our dream hurts. Life introduces us to failures. And with failures, came along disappointments, discouragements, disagreement, hard circumstances and the very thought of stop trying and giving up. We hear an inner voice that says please no more. I can’t take being hurt again. We convince ourselves that it is better to just give up those things and do what we are suppose to do instead of longing and striving of what we are meant to do.

Ladies and gentlemen, Thomas Edison, one of the greatest scientists ever lived said “our greatest weakness lies in giving up, the most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time”. The question is, do we have the courage to try that one more time?

I was reading the form 5 English textbook. And I encountered an article that talked about a young man call Terry Fox borned in the 195o's. And you should know that Terry was a very good basketball player, He played for his school. And at the age of 18, Terry was diagnosed with cancer, and his right leg was amputated above the knee. That’s not fair, if anyone have the right to give up and just accept reality, he does. The amputation ended his ability to play basketball, but it did not kill his dream. Giving up was not on Terry’s mind. Despite of his physical limitation, against the advice of many. Terry was ready to try one more time. To raise society’s awareness about cancer, Terry embarked on a “Marathon of Hope”. In which he ran 5373 km across Canada’s Atlantic provinces, over 143 days. He won attention of millions of people as he struggled to run with his one good leg and artificial limb. At the age of 22, Terry lost the battle to cancer. But he was successful in founding the Terry Fox Foundation that raises money for cancer research. And this Foundation live until this day. He was an ordinary man like you and I, but he had one thing not many people have. He had the courage beyond ordinary to try one more time. Even at the point between life and death.

Ladies and gentlemen, when was the last time when you were put in a situation where you think that there is no hope left for you? When was the last time you stop trying and convince yourself that you were incapable and it was impossible for you to achieve? If you ever let a dream slip away I am here to tell you, please try just one more time!

If Terry Fox did not try his one more time he would never make a difference. If Edison did not try one more time, he would have never been known. If you were to forget every word that I said today it would thrill me, if you remember this. Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

A sense of belonging

When I was a little boy. I was a very quiet kid. I did not mix very well with the other children. Somehow I was just not interested, I used to have my own worlds and imaginations. And I couldn't be bothered more about others. Many really thought that I was somehow weird, and to a certain level I was really different. In between that, fearing to deal and ask of what is going on in the inside, people like me convince ourselves that we are unique, special and different from others, we justify ourselves and call us people with deep thoughts, greater wisdom and artistic when the simple truth is, we are just trying to cover up how lonely we are inside. As a result we become temperamental, unpredictable and very hard to be with by others. So I grew up and spent my primary years, sub-consciously, perhaps, feeling a little rejected, a little abandoned and a little lost in this big wide world. It took me a lot of courage to finally deal with myself, sit down and question my inner man and soul that what was actually going on. Along the way I learned that we all, though of different age or nationality or colour, we all need to feel a lot, a great amount of a sense of belonging. So I grew up and get a little older, along the teenage years even until today, I learned that I was constantly striving to earn people's attention. I need to know that I am important. The consequences are, many at times, I acted and did many stupid things. To express how much of myself, yearning for people to acknowledge me, I started to write poetries, short stories and plays, took up courage to learn public speaking skills and ended up more like a comedian. I finally realised that there is a great part of me that yearned to communicate with people. But the bottom-line was, I wanted people to accept me, I wanted a sense of belonging, where I can feel love rather than rejection, seeing hope and joy rather than the sense of abundance or the killing chill of loneliness. I learned from my teenage years, that we all like empty bottles are constantly waiting to be filled. And if not, we will keep on, doing what we should do, to earn that certain sense of security, of love, acceptance and of home. And many times, it will result in merely irrational actions that would hurt not only ourselves but others. My question here is, how about you? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Daily Blog...

To Do Or Not To Do

Life is a journey round up by countless decisions. We live everyday having to make numerous decisions. Today you chose exactly what to wear, exactly what to do and exactly how you are going to comb your hair. Although many choices and decisions in everyday life might be insignificant but some of them are very crucial. To do or not to do, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Daily Blog.We all, humans alike have tough choices in life. Some of them are so important that it can even change, shape our life and influence people around us, as a result making differences in every single situation we live in. If you choose to study medicine, you'll be seeing patient all the days of your life, if you choose to be a lawyer, you will have to lie all your life! And that's pretty much of a job. It is unarguable, that decisions and choices are crucial keys of our life. One single decision can instantly causes a chain of chemistry to be a stepping stone of a great destiny. Therefore it is important for us to realise and grab the fact, the truth that it is important, and necessary for us to grab all opportunities that are available, to always make the right decision. Live every stage of life to its fullness. Understand that we have the responsibility to make the right choices at the right time in order to live a right life? Take a thought, a moment of your precious 24 hours to value, and ask yourself, am I making the right decision? What are the consequences that follow, what are the possibilities, what are the risks. Am I ready? Am I not? Martin Luther King, one of the greatest man ever lived once said "the time is always right to do what is right". Think thoroughly and live buddy. When dilemma and irony bum, awake, arise, and make the decision you ought to, be therefore the man or woman you are meant be and do what you are meant to do. To do or not to do. Ladies and gentlemen, here is it your moment is in.