This, put up here on Mr. Johnson's request, was my speech in the school speech competition. I made some last minute changes which, unfortunately, are not included here and therefore lost forever.
When we were selected to be admitted into KMLA, it was because we were judged to possess the potential to become the leaders of Korea and the world. I have no doubt that every one of you are of the caliber to become such persons and that I will read many of your names on newspaper or see them on television.
The price of greatness is responsibility, as Winston Churchill once said. However, if the students of KMLA continue in a mediocre station, absorbed in their own affairs, and a factor of no consequence in the movement of the world, they will remain undisturbed and unknown; one cannot rise to be a leader in the civilised world without being involved in its problems, without being convulsed by its agonies and inspired by its causes.
Many of us think that it is too early to be pondering the problems of the world, that it is too early to be involved in something we are so unaccustomed to delve into. After all, we are so busy: busy with our lives, busy with eking out that last digit on our report cards, too busy to be aware of what��s going on around us. The fact that we��re in physical isolation from the rest of the world does not help either, I admit. But I urge you, to stop blaming your surroundings for the neglect of a duty that we should all take seriously-the duty of being aware.
To prepare ourselves for the day we enter the society of the world, we must first know and be aware of its nature and its spirit. One does not set out on foreign terrain and expect to proceed in the right direction without first looking at a map. One does not go swimming in waters of depths unknown. How would we fare any better than the lost traveler or drowning swimmer if we do not manifest an intense and continued interest in the world��s affairs?
Let us rise to the full level of our duty and of our opportunity; let us fulfill the expectations of those around us; let us one day go forth into the world and embrace it as we would a friend we had known for a long time.