If you fall down in a race, what helps you get up the fastest? Is it your feet? Your legs? No! It is the determination you have to win the race. Anyone can accomplish anything if they are determined. Good morning Dr. Revathi, judges, teachers and my fellow students. My name is Jeshman Sethukavalar and today I am here to talk to you about determination. Coming back to the race, my cousin was a participant in it. He was in the exact same situation. He didn’t care about how much he got embarrassed. It was his determination that made him get up and run. Surprisingly, he won the race despite the fact that he fell down. But think about it, was it really surprising? We are all determined to win the public speaking competition. All the participants here today are winners because we are determined and we are trying our best.

Why should we be determined? Determination is the key to the treasure chest of dreams. Our dream is not the puzzle, but it is a part of the puzzle. If a person doesn’t try hard and is always “Dreaming” in class, how will this person achieve his or her goals? We need to work for it. Let’s see a celebrity who we are jealous of today. There is no better example than Canada’s singing sensation Justin Bieber. To be truthful, he was born in a poor family. Even so, he didn’t keep his talent locked up in a box. He opened the box and let the whole world know what he had within him even though he was discouraged many times. Did he fail? No! Here he is today having more than ten million fans around the world.

We can use determination anywhere in any situation. One can get perfect marks on a test if one is determined to get perfect. “No pain no gain”.

Colin Powell says that “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.” There is a short story about two mice. There was one thin mouse and one fat mouse. One day, both mice fell into a pail of milk. Both mice struggled. The fat mouse drowned because he got tired and gave up. The skinny mouse however was determined. He kept swimming for two nonstop hours. After a while, he felt something solid under him. To his surprise, there was a lump of butter that he had churned by constantly paddling. The successful mouse jumped out of the pail and saved himself. What is the moral of this story? The moral is that every accomplishment starts with an attempt to try.

Who hasn’t heard of Lionel Messi? Lionel Messi is the current best soccer player in the Spanish league. He plays for Argentina and FC Barcelona. In an interview he was asked about what was the key to his success. He said, “Something deep in my character allows me to take the hits and get on with trying to win.” That something deep in his character is determination. There is another quote said by Michael Jordan himself. He says, “If you run into a wall, don’t turn around, figure out another way to get past it.” I am determined to spread this message to you all. Now I hope you will be determined to achieve your goals in life. The purpose of my speech is to make these few minutes of your life an unforgettable lesson. Thank you for listening to my speech patiently. 

Um…excuse me judges, the speech that I spent 10 years preparing is now gone. The neighbour’s dog seemed to know exactly where I hid it and had it for breakfast, and also I feel all stressed out because everyone who spoke before me did such a great job, so then I lost my confidence. So I cannot speak today. So thank you and good bye.

Good Morning Dr. Revathi, teachers, volunteers and my excuse-making friends. My name is Shyana Shaiskandan and I welcome you to the world of excuse-free living.

I chose this topic to bring awareness to this school that we are missing out on a bunch of great life experiences just because of our fears that cause us to make excuses.

We should get rid of these self-defeating habits, like making excuses, and I am sure that this will ring a bell for all of you.

Hmm… why do we make excuses? We make excuses because of our fear, or to make ourselves feel better. Sometimes, there is a reason to say “no”, but NEVER to make an excuse.

Another reason we make excuses is because of a bad experience in the past, then remembering that in the present and creating excuses.

Don’t you know how many valuable life experiences you are missing out on?

Think about this…everything that you experience is a chance to get you closer to God; by making an excuse you’re trying to run away from God. He never says, “I can’t bless you today because I am too busy.” God says that all things are possible and I bet he has never made an excuse before.

The habit of always making excuses will overpower you. You should control your excuses and make sure you never let them control you. You don’t want to know what will happen then.

Well, I have heard a lot of excuses in my life but the main ones are: I am too tired, it gives me allergies, it smells weird, and I don’t have time. Well my favourite one is “the dog ate my homework.”

I want to share with you a personal dream…. I want to be an astronaut. When my time comes to visit that moon, I can just chicken out because of the aliens out there or because I might get lost in space, or I will run out of air or, or…. See how your excuses can overpower you. Maybe I would still be alive but think what your excuses also bring you to… I would not feel accomplished, I would have no knowledge, and plus my dreams would be crushed. All this would happen just because of a silly excuse.

Whenever we think that our task is not what we want to do, look at it from a different perspective. You know, I can still be friends with aliens, I may not run out of air, and I will make sure I don’t get lost.

It never matters what the task is, rather say no and be honest than make an excuse. You should admit this to yourselves, and try to make your thoughts more positive. For an example, I just came back from school and am thinking, “I don’t have time for my homework”. Instead, I should think, “Well, I probably would have time for my homework if I stop watching 'iCarly' that much on TV.

We should always see our obstacle in a different way. When you make an excuse you are actually digging your own grave in the long run. Sometimes without even you noticing, we make excuses. All of us do, but we all need to stop doing that too. I know it may be hard to break an excuse-making habit just overnight, but you should do your best to try. By not making excuses, you will learn new things in life which will make you happy and you will pass this on to others. This way you are practicing all the five human values that hold our hearts close together. If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you will find an excuse. I believe that you can turn all your dreams into reality, because we all have a lot of potential. Thank you for listening and have an excuse-free day.

Imagine you are a bee, and you make honey every single day. A person comes in your bee hive and takes all the honey. You spent a lot of time and hard work making that honey. What would you do? You probably might get angry at the person and try to sting him or her. If you have a good attitude, you might let it go and say, “A man can only steal my honey, not the art of making it.”

Good morning Ms. Ratnavadivel and my fellow classmates. Today I'll be talking about attitude. Attitude is a way of life. We can't control how people think. But, we can make the situation better by having a good attitude. The only difference between a good day and a bad day is your attitude. If someone smiles at you, you are most likely to smile back at them. But if someone talks meanly to you, you are most likely to snap back at them and say, “Excuse me!”

You see how you change your attitude when someone treats you differently. There is a quote that relates to this. “Don't mix up my personality and attitude. My personality is who I am. And my attitude is based on how you treat me,” by an anonymous. With attitude you don't only use words. You also use your actions as well, let's say rolling your eyes or even snapping in an attitude type of way.

There is a story on attitude that I would like to share with you all. There was a young lady with three strands of hair. She was looking in the mirror and said, “Ummm...... a braid will be perfect today!” Then she had a great day. The next day she had two strands of hair. She looked in the mirror and said, “Hmmm.... nothing looks better than a twisted hair day!” Again she had herself a great day. The next day she had one strand of hair. She looked in the mirror and said, “ooh ooh ooh, I know today I will have a pony tail.” And again she had a fantastic day. The next day she was totally bald. No hair at all. She looked in the mirror, and guess what she said, “Hoot! Hoot! Now I don't have to do my hair again.” And then she hopped merrily out of her house with a fancy hat. If I were her, I would totally freak out! But it's her attitude that didn't make her feel that bad. She had a really fantastic attitude. As you can see, attitude is basically just thinking positive and doing positive.

Now, an example of bad attitude. Your teacher gives only you a re-test because you have a really poor mark. So your teacher says to re-write the test on another paper. She gives you a chance to get a higher mark, and this is what you do: (Roll eyes) Fine lady, I'll do it. Ummm..... hello!? She is giving you another chance to get a higher mark and this is what you have to say?

Sometimes your bad attitude can affect others’ attitude as well. Let's say person A had a bad day, so person A says ‘whatever’ when you tell them you got perfect on your test. Then that makes you angry that you acted meanly to the other person.

Oh, I remember something really cool that my cousin sent me by email. It involves a little math in it. You can try this after. Write down the alphabet A-Z. Number the alphabet in order. For example, A with 1, B with 2, and C with 3. Now take God’s love. Add up the letters. Do the same with hard work and attitude. What brought you 100%? I tried it. ATTITUDE brought you 100%!

I would like to end off my speech with a quote. “Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.” By Mahatma Gandhi. Thank you for listening to my speech.