Thursday, October 10, 2013

Your Speeches




Dear All,

Public speaking is a skill that anybody can learn. All you need to do is practice a bit. It helps to talk about a topic you are interested in and/or you feel strongly about.

Please find a topic that fits this description - and then start talking. Please either transcribe your speech and attach it as a comment - or, if you feel very daring, record yourself and put your speech up on youtube and post the link as a comment.

Enjoy!

Gudrun

2 comments:

  1. Objectifying Memories

    Before I begin, I'm going to ask you to do something for me. I want you to take a minute out of your busy lives and think about a memory. Any memory you want. It could be something that made you feel good yesterday or a reminder of a certain moment that changed your life and how you see the world today. With a show of hands, how many of you thought of one right away? Now, how many of you have an object that reminds you of that moment, like a trophy or a party hat? Just as I thought…Almost everyone kept their hand up.
    I know what you are probably thinking, “Why does this crazy person want us to remember the past when there are so many people saying that we should be ‘living now’ and thinking about the future?” I know people are too busy with their current lives to look back into the past and reminisce the ‘good old days’. I know that sometimes, the past contains information that we just want to forget and burry deep down into our subconscious mind. I also know that some of us get carried away in our work, which leads to disregarding our memories and replacing them with irrelevant information. Today, I’m here to tell you that memories DO matter and are very important in your present life, or at least they should be.
    Even though you don’t realize it, memories play an important role in your life. Come to think of it, if it weren’t for memories, we would only live through events as they were happening to us at the time. Only go through those feelings and emotions once and then they would vanish as life went on. We would forget that time Tim fell off his bike and made us laugh when we were kids, that time Aunt Frieda brought us that delicious chocolate cake at Christmas dinner and that guy who dressed up as a human iPhone for Halloween last year. Just thinking about all these memories makes me feel happy and warm inside, and they aren’t even mine! Except for Tim…that actually happened in my childhood, but that story is a whole other chapter under the ‘stupidity’ section of my life. But you see, memories allow us to remember how people or situations made us feel, so that when we need to be reminded of a happy moment, we can look back on a memory and giggle a little. I know Tim wasn’t laughing at the time, but it was pretty funny.
    Another important purpose of memories is the fact that we learn from them. Even our bad memories are useful to us in this case. They remind us of what to avoid in the future, because of our bad experience. For example, I won’t go back to a certain Mexican restaurant, because of the memory of me puking in my bathroom toilet afterwards. Tim won’t be biking off his roof and onto a trampoline in his backyard again, unless he wants to break his arm, hip and leg for some weird reason. Memories can also encourage us to repeat certain events, because of the positive outcome. For example, I will cook for my mom again tomorrow when she gets back from work, because she was very happy and pleased with me and I liked the way that made me feel.

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  2. (continued...)


    They also remind us of the person we were, which splits up into two different types of recollection: the negative and the positive. The first one is when we remember the negative state we were in and use it as a reminder not to get dragged back there in the future. This memory is there to push us to do better and be our best. The second case is when you sometimes loose yourself in the pressures of society and you don’t even remember who you are as a person. Your positive memories are there to remind you of everything you have been through and become, so you can find your inner-self again.
    But can you imagine how many memories that adds up too? Way too many for your brain to hold on to! And still, it does! It is a magical organ, our brains, but we need to cut it some slack. We need to help it retrieve this ‘lost information’ by activating the specific ‘memory slot’ it is stored in. That is why we need to objectify our memories! Now what does that mean? Well, I’m basically suggesting keeping a ‘souvenir’ from your life events. So don’t throw those tickets away from that awesome concert you went to, keep that receipt from that first dinner you had with your boyfriend. Put it in a box, in a photo album, hang it on a wall…Just remember to keep it! That is why most of you kept your hands up when I asked you if you have an object in your house that reminded you of that memory, because they do help.
    And when you are having a bad day or you need a little inspiration, you can look at all these objects and remember all those good and bad times. And believe me when I say, it will change your life and it will remind you that every day if for making a new memory and is not to be wasted.

    (That was way too long, but I didn't want to get rid of anything :) )

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