Other / Diversity
Topic: Diversity, Tolerance, Acceptance, and Beyond
I would like the speech to focus around the differences between tolerance and acceptance in relation to diversity, and reference current issues surrounding this topic that have to do with culture, race, religion, mental health, education and most importantly, sexual identity. I would like to have some humor inserted in the speech (not directly noticeable like a full-on joke, but stuff that will have people chuckling or laughing at times). I will be speaking in front of over 400 private high school students and faculty members during a diversity assembly. I would like it to include some of my own personal details and experiences as well. I am Jewish (currently non-practicing), caucasian, and a lesbian. I’ve been called a kike and a dyke on multiple occasions in unfriendly situations. I didn’t come out until I was fifteen, because I couldn’t accept myself for who I am, and all I wanted to be was “normal” like every other girl in my high school, and it took forcing myself to go on a date with a horny teenage boy to accept that. The high school I was at (I switched schools sophomore year before I came out) had no lgbt students as far as I know when I attended it, so that made coming out even harder for me. It was and still is a big school (approximately 1300 students). I have also been treated for anxiety since I was 11, and clinical depression since I was 14. I love the school I’m at now (The Pennington School in Pennington, NJ) and the people, and I’ve never been happier in my life. I’m only a bit sad that this is my last year at the school, and I wasn’t there from the beginning. I also have Auditory Processing Disorder, which can be described as ear dyslexia, and used to have to have all my teachers in middle school wear a small microphone connected to a small earpiece in my ear on their clothing just so I could understand what they were saying most of the time during class. I also used to be an insecure person (not so much anymore), and I got a nose job in June of last year after years of begging my parents for one. Music is my life. I am a musician (trumpet and bass guitar) and I want to go into artist representation as a career in the future. I will be attending University in the Fall for Arts and Entertainment Management. People describe me as humorous, friendly, confident and outgoing, but most of them don’t really know how I got to be the person I am today. I am who I am today because of my own self-acceptance and life experiences. You don’t necessarily have to use all this information, but I figured that it would help if you knew about who you were writing for, and what I’m like as a person. The speech should probably start with a short introduction of myself, and the speech should be between 4 and 9 minutes in terms of amount of time it takes me to recite it.
