Controversy is my middle name...

While on the train this morning, i recalled my childhood and thought about the controversy i stirred on a day to day basis when i was high school.

Nothing as great a deal as causing mutiny between the teachers and students - well i hope i didnt, and if i did, i apologise.

It was more along the line of the topics i would talk about in class when i am asked to present a speech. Or the type of evidence i would use to back up my argument in a debate. They were never the obvious arguments, they were always something highly political, or too touchy that the opposing team wouldnt have a clue as to how they should refute my arguments. Sometimes, it would just go over their heads.

I remember this one time in Year 10, we had a substitute teacher for English and she told us to pick a topic, any topic, and write a 3 minute speech. I somehow got volunteered by my peers to go first - possibly because i would always volunteer myself during speech-type assessments. (Its an advantage to go first when you are being assessed, there is no benchmark to be measured against. And since im a confident speaker, i'm usually who the teacher will then use as the benchmark).

So, i walked to the front of the class with the blackboard behind me and proceeded to make my passionate speech on none other than...euthanasia!

3 minutes on my belief that every person has the right to make their own choice about the subject...it basically didnt go down well with the teacher. I didnt use coarse language, although I may have been slightly explicit talking about how euthanasia was done. I believe i wrote that speech down really well, the problem was that the substitute teacher was highly religious. She was anti-euthanasia and perhaps I should have been more sensitive to others feelings towards the subject. I mean fair enough, she was and is entitled to her opinions and beliefs. Although, she didnt have to condemn my public speaking skills because she didnt like the subject matter. She was the first and only teacher who ever negatively commented on my speaking skills.

Shortly there after, the teachers at my school had asked me to participate in a public speaking competition in our local area. There were great prizes to be won. It was extra curricular activity that i could add to my references. So, i entered.

We were advised that there would be 2 impromptu speaking rounds and then a round where we could speak on a topic of our choice, but it had to be based on current World News.

I researched for 2 months, and decided that i would talk about Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma. A Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1991, who was placed under house arrest in 1989. This woman is amazing, when presented with the option of freedom only if she leaves her country, she chose to stay to fight for her people. I was going to present the current situation in Burma - the suffering of their people at the plight of the military...

But when i learnt that the other students were going to talk about "Bright Yellow Cars", or "The food we eat", or even "What is the meaning of life?"...i thought i should soften my subject matter. Obviously, it was a strong political subject that no one in the audience would anticipated a 15 y/o girl would talk about. So, i focused on how Aung San Suu Kyi was an inspiration to women and world leaders alike, and how we could all learn from her diplomatic methods to solve problems versus going to war.

It was still heavy. The student who won talked about the "Bright Yellow Cars".

Yeah.