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Hello, everyone. There are many people, wondering about the order in which we're giving speeches.
Why eleventh grader, twelfth grader, teacher, and then twelfth grader? It's not even in
alphabetic order. Then why is it this way? My answer is reverse to handsomeness. (laughter)
My speech's called "What makes our life happier?" I suggested to a friend of mine, "let's live
in a fun way." The friend replied, "I'm already enjoying life. Playing League of Legends is
fun like nothing else." I asked him how he felt after the game, on the bus, on the way home.
His answer was "somewhat hollow." My definition of a fun activity is one that you
keep waiting for before it starts, enjoy during it, and one that you do not regret after it
has ended. There are people older than me listening to the speech, and you may think
that it's inappropriate that a twelfth grader is trying to teach them something about life.
That's like lecturing Confucius on writing, but please don't take my speech too seriously.
Mr. Kim Byung-soo taught me (thank you, sir) that Confucius once said that a man who knows
cannot be the same as the one who likes, and the one who likes something is different from
one who enjoys it. I thought to myself after hearing this, 'do Korean high school students
know what they enjoy?' So I stand here to help out my friends and younger students.
Sometimes, a harder activity may be more fun than less exhausting ones. Last year, I led
the school orchestra and went abroad on a volunteer project, in the sweltering Philippines.
But I enjoyed these harder activities. These irritating, arduous, and exhausting activities,
are activities that are fun only to me. If someone else had been the conductor for the
orchestra at the last rugby match between Yangchung High School and Baejae High School
(one of the current eleventh graders will be replacing me soon), I ensure you, he will
hot enjoy it, as they will not follow your lead easily. But this is the point. People
differ in activities they enjoy. Everyone has different hobbies. Some may enjoy listening
to music, some may enjoy movies more. This seems like that a fun activity is an activity
easy to do and easy to remember. What I'm trying to say here is, what is a truly enjoyable
activity? A truly enjoyable activity also acts as a way to express yourself. If you
say that you enjoy volunteering, you might be considered an emphatic person, a person
who likes people. Cooking, playing music, painting, all ways to express who you are.
Why? Why are these activities ways to express oneself?
This is because these activities are something only you enjoy in a unique way.
For some, high school art classes may be the last time in their lives that they paint;
some may abandon cooking because results are disastrous every time they try. Find something
you enjoy and develop it. A truly enjoyable activity acts as your own ideology. Activities
that are enjoyable, memorable, and not regrettable, these become your personality, perks.
If they ask you in a university interview about your unique traits, tell them about your own unique activities.
Find something you've never tried before and see if you enjoy it. I told you
that I went to the Philippines to do volunteer work? Frankly, it came very unexpectedly to
me. Before winter vacation, my father suddenly asked me if I wanted to go. After ten minutes,
I decided that I would go, and since then, that activity has been my driving force for
my volunteer work. Try something - Unexpectedly. I've been actively volunteering in a lot of
occasions. By doing something unintended, you will acquire a wider view of the world.
Things you need to keep in mind when trying to find a new activity: it has to be productive
and not boring. Firstly, let's ponder about productivity. Take the example of gaming.
They're enjoyable, fun, but they ultimately make you feel hollow in the end because it's
not productive. It gives you a feeling of achievement when you do something productive,
not bored by the activity itself. The activity; renewed by itself, feeling better by itself,
addicted by itself. If you're bored of it, you don't want to continue, right? The feeling
achievement allows you to go on. You've tried and tried, but if it doesn't get better? We've
now seen how to find good activities. What if you find them boring after a while? The
solution, I think, is fusion of fun activities. I've told you that I'm continuing my volunteering
work. Then, what am I doing nowadays? I'm currently volunteering my musical abilities
as a part of the orchestra. The fusion of music and volunteering. It's really fun.
The communication between people via music gives me a way of life, feeling of achievement,
and gratification. If you have two things you enjoy, fuse them into something better.
I hope you find a way to fuse activities to good effect. A warning, though: if you detect
any adverse effects, destroy the fusion immediately. One develops an obsession that one must enjoy
the activity. You may get bored of both activities and ditch them all. I hope this speech helps
you in difficult times, thank you for listening.