So much did the speech inspire me that later on when I typed it in a computer, I wanted to share it with everyone I knew. I emailed it to several friends, some of whom commented that it was inspirational.
In January 2012, I went to Starehe Boys' Centre, my former high school, to deliver the speech to its students. I presented a copy of the speech to the school administration for review. Sooner rather than later, I was permitted to deliver it to Starehe students during their evening assembly.
Just before delivering the speech, Mr. Matthew Kithyaka, the then director of Starehe, requested me to be brief, forcing me to omit much of the stuff in Sikorski's original speech. Perhaps because I didn't deliver the speech convincingly, I felt horribly carsick on my way back home that evening. That clearly taught me plagiarism just isn't right.
Even though I didn't sound convincing while delivering the speech, the fact that I went to Starehe to deliver it showed how deeply it inspired me. And the speech has had a huge impact on me. It has colored the way I have led my life over the last twelve years. Okay, let me tell you what the speech was about.
Sikorski began the speech by saying that as a congressman, he had met many successful people - religious, political, business and scientific leaders. During his interactions with them, he had asked them what they had learnt about life and people. It is from the answers he got from his question that he came up with six pieces of advice he had to the 1986 graduating class of Breckenridge High School.
First, he advised them to be absolutely determined to enjoy what they did. Giving two examples, he said he had never met anyone who succeeded at something he or she hated.
Second, he advised them not to be afraid to fail, and that when they failed at something, an experience they were likely to have, they should learn from it and move on.
Third, he advised them to never give up on anybody. (When I went to Starehe Boys' Centre to deliver a plagiarized version of Sikorski's speech, I told the students not to be surprised if the guy who hardly ever spoke in class became a government spokesman some day. Or if the guy who shied away from conversing with girls invited them for his wedding and the bride turned out to be a remarkably beautiful and sophisticated lady. Or if the guy who dropped physics in Form 3 came up with groundbreaking ideas in nuclear and atomic physics. I think Sikorski would agree with me on that.)
Fourth, Sikorski advised the 1986 Breckenridge High School graduates to come back home often, for he had learnt that when we face the toughest times in life, we have to get to our roots and remember our fundamentals. He mentioned that he was lucky to have parents who had taught him to work hard and care deeply; to suspect people on the make and still respect those who just can't make it.
Fifth, he advised them to trust their instincts. Since instincts come from fundamentals, he encouraged them to develop good ones and depend on them. He added that sometimes, their instincts would be all they'd have to tell them they were moving in the right direction when everyone else told them they were going crazy.
Lastly, Sikorski advised the high school graduates to trust their instincts and never give up on themselves. Pointing out that human progress is a chain and every generation forges a little piece of it, he challenged them to do what they could in their own lives to strengthen their link and thereby hand down a stronger chain to the next generation.
He informed the high school graduates that if justice was finally to be gained for the oppressed, it would be because their generation would give them people like Martin Luther King who faced guns and police dogs because he believed injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
If the hungry were to be fed, it would be because their generation gave the world people as committed as Harry Chapin who gave the last years of his short life, not to the riches he could gain for himself as a singer, but to raising millions of dollars to help feed the hungry.
Before concluding his speech, Sikorski enlightened the high school graduates that as they sought their ways for themselves and for America, they had the tools needed to overcome world wars, great depressions and terrible natural disasters:
- the values of a just society
- the strength of revolutionary democracy
- the power of a free economy
- the muscle of a skilled workforce
- the talents of an educated people
He apprised them that their vision for themselves and their country should be as John Steinbeck described it: "I see us ... not in the setting sun of a dark night of despair ahead. I see us in the crimson light of a rising sun, fresh from the burning, creative hand of God. I see great days ahead. Great days made possible by men and women of will and vision."
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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story on a speech that inspired me, you might also enjoy another story on "An Inspiring Correspondence" which I wrote in 2018. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.
