The Last Second Decision

There I was, standing at the front of the class, all eyes pirceing my one strand of confidence left. I was about to give a speech that I had written in ten minutes, because last night was sort of hectic. Only Mr. Hauf wouldn't hear out my story, because no excuse is good enough for him. It's either too predictable, or too silly, or just too usual for him to hear out someones excuse. Now I didn't expect him to hear me out, I guess I did let my hopes climb a little too high though, I mean isn't it the least he can do for his number one student? At least, I was his number one student, but not after this speech. I can't even remember half the words in it, in fact, it wasn't even a speech. It was a measly index card with a few sentances written on it. The sentances weren't from my heart, and they weren't even that convincing. That is the reason why I stood there and recited a speech I had never memorized, read, or even written. A speech that was being created right there by me. The weird thing was, it wasn't even scary.



"As humans, we often stop to wonder, where is my life going? Who should I converse with? Why shouldn't I take a job that my parents disagree with? As teenagers, we often wonder about many things adults forget they ever cared about. That is why so many teens have arguments with their parents. For instance, a mom won't consider that her daughter worries about that freckle on her face. At one point, the mother may have been insecure about the freckle on her face. Only adults don't notice things like that; and they don't call a person out on it even if they do. When a teenager has a freckle on their face, they're bound to be called out on it. If you think about it, we are nothing more than a freckle. A person who is either in a wanted, or unwanted land. Noticed, or unoticed. Called upon, or left in the cold. Sometimes a freckle is very dark against the skin, and sometimes its very light and hardly noticable. Or perhaps a freckle is very big while another is rather small. In some cases there are whole bunches of freckles, and in others they tend to stand alone. I believe that we as a group of people need to realize that though we may all have differences. We should not resolve them out of anger, or hurtful words. We should embrace them and accept those qualities about each an everyone of us. So next time a person has dimples, or freckles, or big ears. Accept them, and stop to wonder, if I find their big ears strange, perhaps they find my small ears strange also. If there is anything you have taken away from this speech today, I hope it's that anyone could be your last chance. Be nice to the people who aren't nice to you, and become friends with anyone and everyone you can. One day it will matter. Thankyou."



As I stood at the podium, I felt proud, after all I had just said all that off the top of my head. I expected a huge applause from the class. Instead it was silent. I continued standing unsure of what to do. Did I carry on too long? Are they sleeping with their eyes open?



"Here's your grade Cathy, please take your seat. Andrew, you're up."



I shakinly grabbed the paper that Mr. Hauf just handed me. I wondered what punishment mom would give me when I told her how bad of a grade I had. I'd probably have to clean out the fireplace, and cook dinner for all seven of the kids. I took a deep breath and forced my eyes to read it.

It was a 'B' Mr. Hauf had added a note, "a little too much all over the place, but great try for making that up off the top of your head". How could he have known I just made all that up?  Actually I really didn't care wheter or not he did know, I was so glad I got a good grade on this speech. I sat smugly in the back of class until the final bell rang. I really needed to catch the bus but I stopped to ask Mr. Hauf how he knew that I had said the speech off the top of my head. He told me it was simply because I didn't look at the index card the whole time, and not even his number one student can acomplish that.



So with that set aside I ran out of class, rushing to the buses, and for once I actually felt pretty good about the freckle on my cheek.