Here are my favorite parts of  some of the speeches from my 5th and 6th graders...

"In school everyone can see the lonely student. Maybe he doesn't have friends. That person may be very hurt but his family and teachers cannot heal his hurt. The hurt is caused by a lack of friendship, so we need to heal his hurt with friendship."

"When I wrote this essay, I remembered one public tv advertisement. In that public tv advertisement, there was a wonderful line that said, 'we multiply the pleasure, we divide the sad, we plus the happiness, and we minus the misery with friends.' I felt a deep impression after reading this. I think friends can give us these feelings, so I think we all need friendships."

"You might think the most important thing would be something we can see or touch but the most important thing to me is something we cannot see and we cannot touch. However, it could be the most important thing to all of you as well."

"...if I have a positive mind, it can make other people around me happy. I learned this from my grandfather. He said if a person has a positive mind, he makes a yellow light from inside his body. This yellow light has a power to make other people around me happy as well."

"He always gives me the present of happiness"

"Time always passes us by and never returns. It never gives me or anyone a second chance."

"My dream is very important to me because it is the engine that drives my life."

Before I tell you about my precious thing, I want to thank all of you for sharing with all of us the precious thing(s) you have in your life. Whether it is your family, health, teaching, dream, cell phone, friend, or pet if it is precious to you then it is also very precious to me.

Thank you for telling us your story. Thank you for having the courage to stand up in front of everyone and give your speech. Thank you for spending all the time it took to write and then memorize your speech. Thank you for letting me and everyone get to know you a little bit better. You are all amazing students and I am so thankful and grateful to have the honor of being your English teacher. Whether or not you win, you have done something spectacular and brave. No matter what, remember to appreciate, thank, love, and take care of your precious thing(s). If you do, then those precious things will last for a very long time.

Since you took the time to share your precious thing(s) with me I’d like to share mine with you. Like many of you the most precious thing to me is my family. Without them all the other precious things I hold dear like my dreams, friends, and future would be meaningless. My family is the most precious thing to me because they love, encourage, protect, and support me unconditionally in everything I do. Without them I’d be nothing. They are my everything. I’ll always do my best to make them smile, laugh, and feel at peace when I am at their side.

My family is made up of my grandmother, mother, older sister, younger brother, and me. I’m sure a lot of you are wondering about my father, he left us when I was seven years old, and my mom has raised us as a single mother since then. That is why I love my mother more than anything in this universe. She has sacrificed and suffered so much for the three of us and I am forever thankful to her for the love she continues to shower on us.

I didn’t meet my maternal grandmother Florence Olasogba till I was in high school, but ever since she came into my life I’ve been able to understand and feel the love of a grandparent. She cooks my favorite foods, tells me stories, listens to me, gives me advice, and is just a blessing to have. I’m lucky to have such a strong and beautiful grandmother with me. Her warm hugs and sweet smile make all the sad moments fade away.

My mother  is the most precious person to me on this earth. The love and affection I feel for her goes beyond words but I’ll try to describe it for you. My mother has always believed in me. Everything and anything I want to do she would always say “it is well” “you can do it!!!” “just believe in yourself” and those words would give me the courage to go after my dreams. My mom raised me to be strong, and the strength she planted inside of me has helped me grow into the woman I am now. She is my biggest inspiration and greatest gift, and I love her immensely.

My older sister is so beautiful and amazing from the inside out that sometimes I wonder if she’s even from this planet. She has always been like a second mom to me. Growing up she would do a lot of mom things for my brother and I like make dinner, check our homework, tuck us into bed, and just be there when we needed her. She’s always been the one with the heart of gold even if she doesn’t realize that. She’s someone who knows who she is and won’t let anyone make her feel like anything less. My sister and I are very close, like two peas in a pod. I can tell her anything and know that she’ll always be there to help me.

My younger brother is the baby in our family. When we were growing up we fought like “cats and dogs” but even then we still loved each other. As we grew up we became kinder to each other, and I feel like we are very close even though we are very different. My brother is quiet, and keeps to himself most of the time, but when he does speak you better listen up because it is usually important unless he’s talking about video games!

These four people are the most precious things I have in this world. They are my heart and my soul. Forever and always they will be my precious things.

Thank you for listening, and I hope that you never forget to cherish your precious thing(s)!

Be blessed,
~Lola O.~

I wrote this speech this morning to share with my students who are participating in the English speech contest tomorrow.

Hello lovely readers!!! I hope your week has been going smoothly with no hiccups to throw you off. I'm sitting at my desk watching my 6-3 students studying for a little quiz we are giving them, and I just feel really happy and lucky to be here having a few pages and maybe even a chapter in their books of life.

I was really dreading going to school today. I've been sick since Tokyo, because it ended up being rainy and cold for 3.5/5 days and I didn't pack for that kind of weather. Also, I'm just feeling lazy since having so much time off, but today one of my students reminded me of why being here is so wonderful, and as most inspiration goes it wasn't intentional.

There is this student who is pretty quiet, doesn't say much in class, and really doesn't make much of an impression at first glance, but today I got to discover a little part of him. There is this English speech contest going on, and I am one of the four judges. The kids have been turning in their essays to my co-teacher, but today she was somewhere and Hyun turned it into me. I was just going to glance at it, to see what his precious thing is (the topic of the essay) and I was really captivated by his writing because I didn't expect such deepness in his words. It was a really beautiful essay, and it just made me feel honored to have been able to read it, and I am so excited to hear the other speeches next week. I also have to give one as well, about my life, teaching, and the things that are precious to me. It will be nice to let the kids learn more about me, and to learn more about them in return.

I look around the classroom and I wonder what each of my students stories are. What are their families like, where do they see themselves in the future, what dreams do they have, what are they afraid of...and so on. I'm a curious person about everyone and everything, but we don't always get to know another person's story, and sometimes they just don't want to share or they're afraid to.

You think you know someone, but you've barely scraped the surface of them, and people change too. Reading about his precious things made me realize I have to dig deeper, look a little harder, and don't assume someone is some way until they show or tell me. It was a nice moment on this sunny Thursday afternoon.

That's the thing about life, we assume someone is someway, and miss out on getting to know who they really are, even when their just your students. It's funny how little moments can have a such a big impact.

Wishing you a fantastic rest of your week!!!

Be blessed,
~Lola O.~

P.S. Travel posts will be coming your way soon!!!