At our school every year we have a continuation for the eighth grade class. This year I am in that eighth grade class.
A couple of weeks ago my class had a meeting with the vp of our school to vote on who we want to talk, the theme, the national anthem singer etc. At this meeting my friends voted me as a speaker as a joke, at the time I had no interest at all so I just laughed and brushed it off. Throughout the day I could not help but think if doing a speech was maybe a good idea. That night I went home and I asked my dad what he thought his response was "Hell yes that would be awesome". After hearing this response I decided that I was going to accept the nomination and do a speech at our continuation.
This is my speach, I wanted to share this with you because it is a message that I think everyone can benefit from.
"Since day one my Dad has always told me that attitude is everything. I never wanted to believe that he was right because he is my dad, I never want to believe that he is right! Now that I am getting older, every single day this phrase starts to make more and more sense to me, and believe it or not I am finally admitting that he is right. Attitude is everything. If there are any of you out there that don’t necessarily believe me, maybe this will help?
Some mornings when you wake up to go train and you say i'm tired, I don’t want to go, I won’t get anything done this is useless, what are the chances that you are super productive that day. I can tell you the chances are low.
On those days you can’t go as fast, on those days you don’t have as much energy, on those days you can’t handle the puck as well, and on those days all of your shots are off and the whole day just feels unproductive. It’s funny how on the days you wake up speaking a bad day into existence a bad day comes. The reason you don't get much done that day is because you have woken up and right off the bat you say these things, then you will go to training believing these things and this will be the outcome of the day.
Now what happens if you wake up with an amazing attitude and say wow the sunrise is beautiful, I got good sleep and the day is going to be super fun and productive. Just within those first 2 minutes of waking up your day already has an entirely different outcome. Now training is fun, you're more productive, you’re making progress, and accomplishing more than normal. Now that you have a good attitude everything seems to be going right.
Why am I sharing all this?
I am telling you this, so that you learn to bring a good attitude towards every situation, and so that you don't let your attitude get in the way.
Now that we are going into highschool, attitude will be more important than ever so start highschool with a good one.
Alright guys we are all getting older that is for sure. This now means that parents are slowly going to start to give us more independence and freedom, you know what that means?
We all have to start to figure out how to do stuff on our own. Mommy and Daddy are going to start to loosen the reins a little bit. I know some of you may not even be ready for this but it is inevitable.
One of the biggest differences between a child and a young adult is the level that their parents control their lives. When I first came here in fifth grade my parents cooked me dinner, made lunches, and gave me somewhat of a bedtime. I haven't had any of this done for me since maybe that first year of fifth grade. Now that we have more control over our lives it is time for us to make our own decisions.
Our attitude will be more important than ever!
Some of these decisions could shape our lives forever, such as picking your college, standing up to a bully, deciding what competitions to attend, and maybe even asking someone out that you really like. Some of these decisions are maybe as simple as what snacks we bring for the day. But no matter what we will be constantly making our own choices. Over the next four years the number of choices that we will have to make is mind boggling. Some decisions that may seem minute could end up being the difference in your life.
Let’s just say one night you're super tired and you don’t turn in your homework. Thankfully homework here is not graded so you just brush it off. You show up to school the next day with a pop quiz and every question on it is pulled straight from the homework.You now fail the pop quiz and you don’t have time to make it up so you finish the class with a bad grade. Now your GPA falls slightly below a 4.0 you have now just barely missed the cut to get into your college of choice.
Instead of being in the state that you dream of living in with your dream job, you now live somewhere boring with a 9-5 that you despise. Now this just keeps spiraling and spiraling. That one small decision just entirely dictated your future. I am telling you this now because whether or not you think the decision you are going to make is going to have no impact on your future, think again and make the best decision you can. As we go into next year ask yourself what decisions do you want to make, and are those decisions going to set you up to be the dream version of yourself. If not, make the decisions that will create the best version of yourself.
So dad, you were right, attitude really is everything."
-- Ava Keenan May 24th, 2024
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