Happy Tuesday everyone,This is a speech I gave at my old elementary school and my little sister's current school for red ribbon week.
Red Ribbon week is a really positive program that teaches elementary school kids about the dangers of drugs in a really fun way. Police and firefighters come to the school to talk about how important it is to take care of their body in their line of work. Marching band and ROTC from my school came to do a short performance. The school really goes out of their way to make drug awareness fun and educational for the students.
More about The Red Ribbon Campaign
This is the ribbon they gave me for the event and after the speech I wore it to school which opened up a lot of conversations about drugs with my classmates. It was interesting for students at my school who do drugs and never believed me when I said I was wholeheartedly against them to see me with the ribbon. A couple times students tried to "peer pressure" me in a way or convince me to do drugs. I said, "See this pinned to my chest? This is how against drugs I am." I'm against drugs enough to go to a grade school event and talk about it. No one could ever convince me to do drugs.
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Hi, my name is Kayla Graham. I am a junior or an eleventh grader at Madison high school. Madison is where I’m sure most of you will probably go after you graduate elementary school and middle school. Before I went to Madison I went here to Whitman like all of you. Some of the teachers I had when I went to school here I am happy to say are still here. Such as Ms. Segars who was my sixth-grade teacher. Ms. Watson who was my fourth. Ms. Barret who was third. And Ms. Kemp who was my kindergarten teacher.
I struggled a lot in Ms. Kemp’s kindergarten class, mostly with reading. I would get stomach aches and had to go the nurse every time we did independent reading because I was so scared and nervous to read by myself. I was okay with read aloud and learning my letters but as words got harder it became more and more difficult for me. Some of the boys in my class made fun of me because of my difficulties with reading.
All of this made me feel like I wasn’t a good student and I just wanted to give up. But my parents and Ms. Kemp wouldn’t let me. None of my teachers let me. I tried really hard. I started practicing every day and really put my mind to it. I won’t lie and say it was easy. But it was worth it when I read Green Eggs and Ham all by myself. It’s like when you’re learning to ride a bike and it’s so hard and frustrating when you can’t just hop on and go. You have to fall a couple times but once you get back on and ride down your sidewalk for the first time all by yourself you’re so happy that you never gave up. And the scab on your knee was totally worth it if anything it shows your triumph.
As I got older the stomach aches happened less and less. I still struggled in first and second grade sometimes but it gradually became easier. I started to read books that genuinely interested me and that made reading a lot more fun. We started doing a lot of math which came more easily to me than reading so I knew I wasn’t a bad student. I just needed to give more effort into this one subject. There will always be that one subject you love, that comes easily to you and the one you don’t love so much because it’s not so easy. Even in high school, there are subjects I love and subjects I don’t love as much because they’re harder. But you can’t give up on things just because they’re hard. I didn’t.
And today I’m proud to say I absolutely love to read. I spend all of my allowance on books and all of my time reading them. I love to write stories too. I hope one day someone else will read my books. My passion for reading started around fourth grade. I remember Ms. Watson would shove books after book at me, some of which I still have. And I would rather read or write books than do drugs any day. No question about it. I would rather feed my brain the knowledge it deserves rather than destroy my mind and body with harmful drugs of any kind. Because the best me is drug-free and I sincerely believe that.
Sometimes learning how to do something is hard. But it’s important that you don’t give up, no matter what anyone says, no matter how hard it is. Who would have thought looking at me sitting in the nurse’s office with a stomach ache that I would come to love reading so much? That thing you struggle with can turn out to be something you love.
Sometimes learning how to do something is hard. But it’s important that you don’t give up, no matter what anyone says, no matter how hard it is. Who would have thought looking at me sitting in the nurse’s office with a stomach ache that I would come to love reading so much? That thing you struggle with can turn out to be something you love.
Thank you
Until next time,
Totally Ky
I remember when you struggled with reading, and how it made you feel. I knew that you a smart girl. But I also knew that some things come easy and some things you have to work hard for. I remember when you got a bunch of awards for math, good citizenship, reading, etc. I was proud of you for all of the awards. But I was overwhelmingly proud that you got a reading award. You worked hard for that! When you returned to Whitman as a high school student to give your speach I had to hold back tears. You had worked so hard and now you were passing on what you had learned. I was again overwhelmingly proud. The things that come easy are great! But the things that you have to work hard for are much more rewarding!
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