Senior Speech. Verbatim. Just as I gave it.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
When I was young, I developed an erratic behavior that would follow me all the way to my high school days. I followed fads and developed hobbies, one after another, in quick succession. The first, that I can remember quite vividly, was Power Rangers. Power Rangers was a fantastic television show. I remember waking up early on Saturday mornings, sitting down on the couch, and waiting for my favorite program to begin. The heavy metal introduction, the huge dinosaur robots, the teenagers (with attitude), and the thick, dramatic plot of every episode held me in a trance-like state for 30 minutes every week. I had action figures, pajamas, and even a complete box set VHS collection of the first season. But like all of my childhood hobbies, the Power Rangers faded into obscurity, and I was off to my next love: Transformers. Transformers played on my interest in giant robots, much like Power Rangers, however Transformers introduced a new and awesome theme: not only were the robots robots, they were robots in disguise. Trucks, helicopters, tanks, bulldozers, anything, you name it. I think I even recall having a transformer that just transformed into an oddly shaped rock. Being obsessed with Transformers brought new curiosity to my young mind. I never knew if what I was looking at was simply a truck, or perhaps a super-cool robot, deceptively hidden as a truck. I stuck with Transformers for awhile, and who wouldn’t, they never disappointed. For awhile, I thought that Transformers really might be my one true love, a hobby I could keep for the rest of my life, that is, until Pokemon came along. While Transformers sported maybe 10 to 15 cool robots, Pokemon had a small army of loveable, but undeniably rad monsters, 150 of them to be exact. Pokemon was a triple-threat. It took my entire grade school by storm. The television show, videogame, and cards all came out around the same time, and everyone was into all three. I often enjoyed watching the TV show as I played the red version of the game on my gameboy color, while sitting next to my collection of cards. But like all super-popular trends, Pokemon died down pretty quick. I soon found myself alienated by the kids that were “too cool” for the likes of Ash Ketchum and Pikachu. So, distraught, and eager to fit in, I went to Shinders, hoping to rid myself of the fad, now turned plague. However, I felt a lot better about the death of the cute little creatures, when the man behind the counter at the store informed me that my foil Charizard card was worth $25 dollars store credit. I sold the rest of my 400 or so cards for less than that, making myself a small fortune of $40 dollars.
After Pokemon, and throughout the rest of my grade school years, I had lots of hobbies including skateboarding, BMX, comic books, coin collecting, sword fighting, anime, and rollerblading, among others. They all held my interest for a moment, but all met the same inevitable end, to the next awesome fad. They sort of just ran out of cool, and turned boring, so I moved on. For a long time I saw past fads as the stupid and uncool things I wasted my youger years on, but in reality they are all far from that. Each left me with something, or perhaps someone, that made me the guy I am today. As a young child, my hobbies were my means to make friends, and build character. I idolized the green ranger, Tommy, and hoped someday to be that cool, even though he played the flute. As I reflect on my friendships, I can see that some of my most cherished childhood memories were deeply rooted in some trend or fad. In reflecting on the fads of the past, I feel that we can grow to truly appreciate the television role models, the animated teachers, and most importantly the growth that they inspired. I doubt that I would have found a better way to solve disagreements with friends were it not for NERF guns. I don’t know who could have given me a better sense of justice than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And I highly doubt that my vocabulary would be half as large as it is now, were it not for Magic: the Gathering. So before you forget about the things that you enjoyed as a child, reflect, and discover what you really learned, what the experience of your childhood interests really meant to you.
Posted byJoe at 10:15 PM
Labels: joe, senior, speech, sta
