I hate this school this food is gross I
have nothing to wear those are just few
of the many things that we as human
beings have all complained about before
and I'm sure that we've all found our
parents to be unbearable our siblings to
be despicable and I'm positive that most
of us have found high school to be a
place of nightmares
and I could go on and on and on about
all the things that I've complained
about in my life and I'm sure that most
of you would have a lot to add to that
list but I'm also sure that someone
somewhere has told you once before to
quit complaining and to be grateful and
I'm here to give you that exact same
message for the thousandth time because
with my recent experiences with Terrapin
day and a couple of personal experiences
I want to tell you guys that for every
situation that we complain about there
is someone somewhere that would give
their everything to be us now the reason
I wanted this to be the topic of my talk
is because of my recent experience with
Terrapin day and for those of you that
don't know what Terrapin day is it's
basically a day where our whole school
every level at Tampa prep we take a day
and we go out and give back to the
community that has so graciously given
back and given to us and for my Terrapin
day I spent it driving warm meals to
people that were homebound people that
couldn't leave the house and so what
happened was I drove over to this
woman's house in this not so nice
apartment complex I got out of the car
walked up to the front door and I
knocked now the door was made out of
glass
so I washed as a little lady waddled
down the hallway she opened the door
looked at me looked at the food in my
hand and her face brightened up now her
face lit up because she was depending on
that meal to get her through the rest of
the day but that's not what stuck with
me the most after introducing myself I
asked her if she needed help bringing in
the food she smiled she said
yes turned around and closed the door
leaving me outside with the food and so
it took me a couple seconds to
registered what had happened so I
knocked again watched her waddle down
the same hallway open the door look at
me and her face lit up again I realized
that in that prior 7 second interaction
she had completely forgotten who I was
and so I reintroduced myself I asked her
again if she needed help bringing the
food she smiled again said yes turned
around and closed the door leaving me
once more outside with the food and so I
did it all over again she came out she
saw me her face lit up and right before
as she was in right before she turned
around to close the door on me for the
third time I held out my hand and was
able to bring the food inside but that
lady made me realize two things the
first thing is that my life is already
extremely blessed I get three healthy
meals a day and I don't depend on
anybody to bring me my bare necessities
she also made me realize that there are
so many people in this world that are
sick
whether it's mentally or physically they
cannot live the lives that we live and
they cannot do the things that we do
because they're ill those are two things
that I'm grateful for food and health
because I know that in this world there
are millions in millions of people that
are deprived from the two things that I
am lucky enough to have access to all
the time and now my next point is more
of a personal one but it's also for all
of us that have ever complained about
our families you see I used to complain
about my family whenever they made me
upset or frustrated but that was up
until I'd say five years ago when I was
in Colombia you see what happened was I
was walking around this sector of
Colombia known as district 13 now
district 13 was this district in
Colombia
that was war torn between a terrorist
group in Colombia's national government
and as I was walking around this
district
I saw a playground and in this
playground there was a man sitting on a
bench right next to where that man was
sitting there were four bullet holes and
as soon as the man saw me looking at the
bullet holes he waved me over and so I
walked over to him and he pulled me in
and he said you see this one this one
ended my wife's life this one killed my
son this one over here took away my
daughter and this one stole my leg I
looked down and odd enough he was an
amputee but later would I come to learn
that that playground that he was sitting
in was actually a memorial built in
honor of his kids and the other kids
that were lost in that military conflict
from that day on I never took my family
for granted I learned to appreciate and
cherish all the time I got with them
because I didn't know at what time they
could be ripped away from me we now have
this tradition in my family that none of
us can go to sleep without saying
goodnight to the rest of us because we
don't know if it'll be the last time we
ever get to speak to each other what I'm
trying to say is that what I want
everyone to realize is that we as a
society have to come together and
realize that we are so lucky for what we
have that we are so blessed that what
with what we've been given I want
everyone to see because I know that
everyone sometimes goes through
hardships and they all and all of us
think the same thing that our life sucks
but I can assure you that when you feel
that way there is someone somewhere in
the world that is struggling a little
bit more than you with a lot less than
what you have so let's just smile and be
grateful thank you
[Applause]