| Rotary Speech Examples |
| A few months ago we were with my dying great grandmother at Heartland Care Center in Marion. It was at this time I was forced to make a decision that would forever change the relationship I had with my mother. I would have to leave my great grandmother and take care of my younger brother, so that my mother could stay and be with the women who raised her. We had been visiting everyday but on this particular day, bad had gone to worse. My cancer stricken great grandmother condition was terminal, and it wouldn�t be long before she passed away. By this time the cancer that originated at the breast had spread to almost every part of her body including the brain. The decision to leave my great grandmother was difficult but if I had applied the rotary international 4-way test, my decision would have been much easier to make. The decision I made would be the same, along with the outcome, but emotionally the decision would have been less painful. The first question, is it the truth? It was the truth that I wanted to be with my great grandmother. It was the truth that if I left I would never be able to speak with my great grandmother again. Not that she was in any condition to speak. But just the thought of not being there when the women who taught me so much about life and shaped most of my morals and values past away took its toll on my conscience. It was also the truth that my mother wanted to be by my great grandmother�s side more than anyone else. My great grandmother was the one who raised my mother. She was her caretaker and basically her best friend. It was also the truth that my younger brother was getting ancy. Not only was he really hungry, but I could also tell he had no desire to be there. Someone was going to have to take him somewhere and if I didn�t then my mother would have to. and finally it was the truth that my mother didn�t want my younger brother to see his great grandmother in such a terrible condition and if my great grandmother could have spoken I know she would not want any of her great grandchildren to see her the way that she was. Incoherent, cold and pale and far away gaze in her eyes. My great grandmother was but a shell of a woman she once was. A women who was so alive even in her 90�s had been reduced to a pale helpless being who could hardly exhibit most human qualities. Then I�d have to think about fairness. Is it fair to all concerned? Would it have been fir to my brother to have to sit there and watch his great grandmother suffer through the painful effects of cancer? No. he told me himself that he had no desire to be there and why would I make a younger boy watch what even most grown men can�t handle. Would it be fair to my mother to have to leave her caretaker and friend when she could die at any moment? No, there is no doubt in my mind that it was my mother who needed to be there more than anyone else in the room. And finally was it fair for me that I would have to leave? It didn�t seem fair to me at the time but it would have been even less fair to my mother. What would the results of my decision bring? Will it bring goodwill and better friendship? I believe that my brother was that I took him out of the bad time he was having and took him to a place where he could get away from the depressing and painful and have a little bit of fun. I also believe that my mother thought of me as a less selfish person. So I believe that it did build goodwill and better friendship. As I reflect on the situation I have to ask was it beneficial to all concerned? It was definitely beneficial for my mother because she got to be with my great grandmother. It was also beneficial for my brother. He finally got to leave. As I left the room with the money to take my brother out on the town, my heart wrenched as my 93-year-old great grandmother cried out for her mother. Remembering back I see that it was also beneficial for myself to not see my great grandmother in such a condition. I few hours later a call came in from my mother. My great grandmother, the last of her generation passed away. |
| Rotary Speech
My sophomore year, I did one of the dumbest things a girl my age could do socially. I developed a crush on a senior guy, and not just any crush, but a full-blown, heart-skips-a-beat-when-I-saw-him, drooling-whenever-I-thought-about-him infection. So, you can imagine my shock and utter joy when he asked me out. For four months, I was walking on clouds. Then, everything plummeted downhill. My mom told me we were going to have to stop seeing each other at the end of the summer. For the first few days, I just felt completely numb. I was in denial. It couldn�t be true, it all was just a bad dream. When it finally hit me, it hit hard. I spent weeks crying myself to sleep and trying to figure out how to tell my boyfriend. I knew I couldn�t do it face-to-face so I wrote him a letter explaining the situation. The next day he called me and begged to see me. My parents said he could come over, and I spent two hours that night holding him while he cried and fighting back my own tears. The months between that time and the end of the summer were probably the worst I will ever have during my young life. Looking back, I can use the rotary international 4-way test to really analyze and understand it. Was it the truth? Yes, but which truth is fact? To me, the truth was that my mother was going to keep me from someone with whom I felt a real connection. Even though we�d only really known each other for several months, I trusted and cared for him as much as the friends I�d had for more than a decade. I felt betrayed, scared, confused, and above all guilty. I kept trying to figure out what I had done to destroy the trust I had spent 15 years building. At the same time, I thought about the other two truths. The truth to my boyfriend was that he was losing me, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. my mothers truth was what I like to call the Lifetime Movie Network point of view: the older guy dates the younger girl because he either just wants sex, or he�s scary, obsessive stalker who�s going to come after her with a shotgun. Was it fair to be all concerned? No, it wasn�t. Actually, it wasn�t really fair to anyone. It wasn�t fair for my friends my friends because they had to put up with me, and I obviously wasn�t a happy person. I felt too intimidated to talk to my parent�s about it, so they didn�t even know I was having problems. My boyfriend, as I said, really couldn�t do anything, so he was depressed also. I don�t mean to sound like I�m just trying to get pity, but I think that I got the shortest end of the stick in this deal. I couldn�t have fun as often as I did before, even though I knew it was bringing down my friends, but I couldn�t help it. I was depressed, there�s no other word for it. A few times, when it was especially bad, I�d imagine myself going into the kitchen, picking up the biggest knife, and ramming it into my stomach, or I�d be in the shower and I�d start examining my razor, trying to figure out if the blades were long enough to actually sever the veins in my wrist. Obviously I never acted on these impulses, but just the fact I was having them and they were so strong it terrified me. Did this build goodwill and better friendship? Yes, and no. I became even closer to my boyfriend and some of my other friends who were there when it became far too much. It�s the opposite for my parents, though. A few weeks into my junior year, my boyfriend and I deiced to get a cell phone, I could use it to call him because my mom was monitoring my calls like a felon�s. We thought that it would work. We were wrong. Two weeks later my mom figured it out. She confronted me, and I didn�t deny it. I was sick of having to pretend everything was all right when in reality I felt like I was going to die. My mom yelled at me, and then called my boyfriend and lectured him. I was insulted when I herd her ask him if I still had my virginity. Of all people, my mother should know I�ve sworn abstinence until marriage, and here she was acting like I had gone back on my word. She came back, and we had a �talk�, during which I was able to keep from crying, but she didn�t. I didn�t let out my feelings until I was alone. Was this beneficial to all concerned? Yes, it was. The next night, my parents and I cut a deal; if my boyfriend and I had absolutely no contact for two weeks, they would consider letting us see each other. It was hard, but we made it. now, we can do things together in groups and we talk constantly. My parents have also learned not to back me into a corner when it comes to making decisions. Instead, they give me their opinions and let me choose. This experience has taught me a lot. I now know that when something bothers me, I need to speak up. I also feel more independent and in control, and I�m over my depression. I have the confidence that I�m strong enough to get through hard times, and I�ll never forget it. |
| My stepsister, whom I shall call Liz, first came to live with us four years ago, us being my mother, my stepfather, and me. During the first quarter of seventh grade, the very year she began to live with us, Liz took a �yellow jacket,� which is an illegal stimulant. The school administrators had caught her and a few other people taking the drug and they all were suspended from school but the punishment didn�t seem to affect her behavior, except maybe to worsen. The people from whom she first received that yellow jacket son became her best friends, though friend is a term I use loosely. Mostly, they were people with whom she could party and drink alcohol with. My mother and stepfather knew of this and perpetually punished her but Liz could not understand the lesson she was supposed to learn. She continued this behavior throughout middle school and into the begging of ninth grade.
During ninth grade, her behavior escalated to heights at which she has never been. She began to talk back to teachers more than before, slack off on homework and tests, and find new friends that could expose her to different music that seemed to �speak� to her feelings and soul more than any others did. These new friends also sold her pot that she smoked in her room at night and in bathrooms at school. While she was supposed to wait for me to get finished with after school activities, Liz would often leave and go somewhere to drink or have sexual intercourse before coming back right before my mother came to pick us up. The combination of drugs, alcohol, and heavy metal bands caused her emotions to change and become dark. At home, she would become unruly and often storm off up to her room during conversations in which my mother and stepfather asked her about grades and calls they had received from teachers. Eventually, Liz ran away to her grandmother�s house, who had come to Marion from Wyandot County to pick Liz up after she had called her grandmother and told her that her father had thrown her down the stairs while I was at home. My bedroom door is right at the head of the stairs and I never heard any arguments or any screams come from there so I knew Liz had lied. From then on, I didn�t, and still don�t, know where Liz was living, nor did my mother and stepfather, but I made a decision not to let my life turn out like hers. I made a promise to myself not to do anything that she had done. Was my decision based on the truth? It is the truth that Liz had taken yellow jacket that fateful day in seventh grade. Her grades going downhill and her capacity for caring about learning and about school decline after she gained new friends is true. It is true that I made a conscious decision to not drink alcohol and to not smoke anything, whether it is pot or cigarettes. Was my decision fair to all concerned? My decision was fair to my parents who had spent so many time and energy into raising me and my decision would only instill more trust between my parents and me. To Liz, my decision was fair because before she had left and run away, I had tried to help her with her homework and make sure she finished it but she repeatedly turned my help away or listened but did not hear it. Her decision to run away to her grandma�s was not fair to me because of all the time and effort I put in to try and turn her around. This decision was fair to friends I had made because they can now believe that I am responsible as I have ever been and that we can never feel any pressure from one another to do any drugs or alcohol. I believe my decision was fair to all my teachers that believed in me, taught me, and changed my character to better suit one that could change society. Did my decision help build goodwill and better friendship? Between my parents and me, this decision did help strengthen the bond of trust and responsibility that they instilled in me. My decision will help build goodwill between all those people that I will meet in the future because my life will show that I have made good decisions regarding drugs and alcohol and they can better put faith in me. My friends and I have a stronger friendship because we threw away the pressures of drinking and doing drugs in order to have fun. Was my decision beneficial to all concerned? My decision was beneficial to my parents because it gave them something else about which they didn�t have to worry. My decision was beneficial to my teachers because it allowed them to not worry about another disruption out of class from me and allowed them to continue teaching. To my friends, my decision was beneficial because it took out a lot of possible stigma that could form if one of us did something upon which the others looked down. And my decision was beneficial to myself because I could now focus all my energies on schoolwork and building stronger, truer friendships rather than spend my time doing nothing or drinking and partying. I believe that even if I had known about the Rotary International 4-Way Test, my decision was still to be the same. My only wish is that Liz had known about this test that morning when she had taken that yellow jacket and changed her life for the worse. If she had known about it, my life, and hers, would have turned out differently as I would not be standing in front of you, telling this story, if she had not made her own destructive decision. |