Memory Vignette

I once gave a speech that was in front of my entire school, a modest sized school. I said multiple times, "Squeeze the juicy goodness out of each and every day," a motivational speech for the beginning of a year with high expectations. These words resonated throughout the auditorium, and I found that certain reactions of the crowd members seemed to be relatively uplifting, but for some futile. From gasps to curious smiles to all out disinterest, the range of reactions to my words seemed quizzical at best. I explained with imaginative language the goals and expectations of the year to come. with the end of my speech I loudly claimed, "Squeeze the juicy goodness," as I squeezed a peach tightly in my hand, exploding its juicy goodness all over the stage.
After my speech, for the first few weeks of school I noticed a particular upbeat spirit among my classmates, but more particularly within student council. The attendance of student council had peaked, and more people were willing to offer their ideas. For a while I had seen that these improvements were demonstrated by the accomplishments that we had made. It didn't last forever, as people began to get in the rhythm of the year, and slowly our numbers slipped and we found ourselves in cruise control for the better part of the month ahead. In the beginning though, I noticed that most of the faculty and administrative personnel wrote my speech off as something that wasn't serious, if only for a few laughs and entertainment. They didn't realize that I was serious in my words, but that didn't matter, because it had a beneficial effect on my class mates, and it gave us a great start to a challenging year.