My Senior Speech, Please read and comment on...
Sometimes I compare my life to Shakespeare’s tragedies. But that’s not a really good comparison, because I think my life seems, in general, to be improving. I would say a Hallmark movie, but it’s not that simple. My life is best compared to the famous and infamous Lifetime Channel movies.
Now a lot of people believe that lifetime movies are all about women getting beaten and raped by men but au contraire mes amis, there is much more to lifetime movies than bad men. There are movies about children getting switched at birth, mothers at young ages, eating disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, gambling addictions, homelessness, inadequate mothers, and the deaths of loved ones… among many others. In fact, there are so many Lifetime Movies, that cable networks have dedicated an entire Channel to them- LMN, Lifetime Movie Network. Their Slogan: “Your movie’s on”. It’s a very good slogan, for me anyway, because my movie is always on, because I love all Lifetime movies.
I was first drawn to Lifetime Movies in my sickly state, the summer before I went to boarding school. See, I went to bed one night, leaving my contacts in, as I did always, and I woke up the next morning, my eye feeling dry and teary at the same time. I went to my bathroom mirror, turned on the light, and saw it -my eye was… pink. I couldn’t believe it. I cried, but there really weren’t any tears left. My grandma thought it would go away if I put Neosporin in my eye, no-siree, by 10 pm that night, I was still feeling the wrath of evil spirits in my eye. Then we made the trip to the emergency room where they doctors told me I had pink eye. With some drops, not Neosporin or any other kind of salve, my eye came to heal itself… Until half way up to my interview in Land O’Lakes, 6 hours north, I felt it coming back again. The pain, the agony… I had to wear glasses the whole trip, and for my two hour interview snuck my contacts back in. I was truly vexed at this return to suffering and after an appointment with a full-fledged eye doctor I found out that the whole time I actually had a bacterial infection. During this time of pain and discovery, I was not completely hopeless and depressed, because things could have been much worse… Like in this one lifetime movie I saw, this girl who rode horses as they dove into a pool of water kept her eyes open while she and the horse submerged themselves into the water, and because of the impact, three days later she wakes up blind. My pain could’ve actually helped me get into boarding school a little. Maybe they thought I had a disability with the way my eye looked and decided to take pity on me when they accepted me.
Many of you don’t know much about me, and therefore can’t see the other deep connections I have to Lifetime movies. So let me elaborate on the details of my life. I was born on 9-3-87 at 9:30 pm, weighing 9lbs, 3 oz. My father died a week after my baptism, the day after Christmas, when I was only 4 months old. I thank my lucky stars to the video I have of that sacrament, because I have absolutely no memory of him. I’ve heard stories, yes, about how he was a great writer, loved the Black Hills, was deeply religious, had a photographic memory, and took in wild animals when they were injured. But that’s really all. That and a box of letters I haven’t had a chance to read through yet. You may be wondering, how could a Lifetime movie be worse than this reality. First I’d tell you, a lot of the movies are based off of true stories, and then I’d tell you my real life gets worse.
All my mother’s dreams were lost that winter, except for those for me. Try as she might, she never got over my father, never remarried or had other children. It was lonely and she was depressed. She died on my tenth birthday, around 9:30 pm. I found her that way the next morning. How could this be worse? It’s hard to say. I suppose it could be worse if, like in the Lifetime Movie, Star, the girl’s father, who loved the main character very much, died, and her living mother hated her, which forced her to run away to a become a nightclub singer, and led to a hasty marriage to a man who abused her. I could’ve ended up like that.
Instead, my Grandmother took me in to live with her. And that December, I had bilateral hip surgery. I was unable to walk for the two months following, after that relying on crutches for two years. And to let you in on a big secret… I don’t… do… sports. I run and go for nice solitary walks in the woods, often in the early morning, being the daughter of Aurora that I am. But I don’t commit to sports. They’re painful, time-consuming, and I’m always seeing someone limping around school, then going back to their athletics, and limping around again. No thanks. While I do find myself left out from the athletic joy that surrounds 80% of the students here, it could be worse. Like in the Lifetime Movie, Perfect Body, I could be a great gymnast, who ends up training with famous Olympic gymnasts like Lesley Reynolds, and after befriending her, becomes anorexic just the way she is, just to end up in the hospital with my dreams of the Olympics vanished.
In middle school, I never really related to my tobacco friendly peers, and ended up spending a lot of time with my teachers before and after school enjoying intellectually stimulating conversation. From them, I picked up my strong affection for the environment, my traditionalist and conservative preferences (except when it comes to the care of orphans), and my sarcasm. My angel of a grandmother really never seemed like a parent to me, but really an overtime grandmother. So, I began to see my teachers as my parents. I worked as hard as I could to learn as much as I could and not disappoint them academically or otherwise. I told them of my problems and they gave me advice. My seem weird to you, but it could be weirder, like in this one Lifetime movie I saw, this girl and her many siblings have an irresponsible mother and the girl ends up having to be the parent for her siblings and often ends up skipping school in order to take care of them.
One of the happiest times of my life was in boarding school. I loved all of my friends there. I loved the dorms and my friends, the 1200-acre woods composing the campus, ice skating on the pond and swimming in it when it melted. Those are a few of the many things I’ll always treasure and miss. I was at boarding school for three quarters until my grandmother’s health declined and she wished for me to come home, as she “cried herself to sleep at night” missing me. I came home and prayed to god that there was a reason for my coming home, and hopefully that it wasn’t to say goodbye to Grandma. I was kind of hoping to maybe meet a guy or something. No. Didn’t happen. But Grandma did have a heart attack that fall. Scared me half to death. She’s better now. But that’s not the only reason I realize now for my coming back home.
I think I came back so that I could bond with my Big Sister, Suzanne, from the Big Brothers, Big Sisters Program. She has really had a positive influence on me. She’s the best housewife I know- she cooks and cleans with all the latest appliances, helps with her husbands business, makes cards and jewelry, is amazing at scrap booking, and did I mention her amazing raspberry jello with real raspberries mixed in and this delicious topping made of many different disguised sugars that are so bad for one’s health, yet taste so good. She’s always there for me, and I don’t know what kind of social life I’d have without her and her snuggly puppy, Chica Banana. When I first heard I’d get her, I expected someone in her 40s going through a midlife crisis but instead I found a fun 24 year old who loves sitting at the lakefront drinking Alterra smoothies.
I hope I’ve showed you all that even in a life, as seemingly dismal it may be, there is silver lining to a gray cloud of disaster. I admit I dwell on the past, but I always try to look on the bright side of life as well. My figure in the carpet that I’ve been hinting at this whole time is not as unsolveable as Henry James. I shall share it with you… Lifetime movies, while they, like my life, may seem dismal, but they always have a mirthful and inspirational ending. So, even if of the male species from Mars, and you have heard that Lifetime Television is for women, which is true, give it a try anyways, it may lift your spirit like it does mine. And females, come on, if you haven’t already, you’re movie’s on.