Personal Narrative: This Year's Rotary

This year’s Rotary topic: Making a Difference. Over the summer, a group of students from my school, including yours truly, had the amazing opportunity to visit the Sigatoka District School in Viti Levu, Fiji. The school was rather small, teaching children from preschool through middle school. It had rather run-down indoor facilities, limited academic supplies, and very tattered and worn books. To my surprise, despite the challenges that I perceived them facing in their schools, these were some of the happiest children I have ever encountered. About every three seconds I heard the curious word "Bula," which I found out later means just about anything in the Fijian language: hello, goodbye, love, happiness, but its true meaning, however, is LIFE. They all had wild ambitions of going to University, traveling to America, but the most common theme among the boys was playing for the Fiji rugby team, one of the best rugby teams in the world. Having such a profound experience with these children was a personal wake-up call.

In my eighth grade year I was attending tournament held at Western Kentucky University. I won two of my three events and was debated when I got second in the other. I remember my mother saying to me, “Jack, you did so well today, yet you are not even excited about it. That really makes me sad, I thought my son would have much humility than that.” That right there… hurt. It was a true wake-up call of why I do speech and debate. The message. I go into each and every tournament with the mindset- I don’t care if I win, but if I don’t influence someone’s thoughts, then I did not do my job. Now while the 300$ prize guaranteed to the winner of this contest may seem so sweet, the true winner of this contest, is the speaker that changes minds, influences people, and most importantly, makes a