Contemplating Humility...

Hi!  I guess you might have noticed that I haven't been blogging very much lately.  This is partially due to the fact that teachers are starting to get this little voice in their head saying, "Go on, just pile up the homework.  It's alright.  They have time to do it ALL."  Ugh.  The other part is my AP European History test that is coming up on May 15!  I'm so scared that you wouldn't even believe me if...  well, if anything.  I really have nothing to say about this AP test, except that I will try my hardest not to get a two.  Again.  Like last year.  In AP World History.  

Anyway, I had to write a speech (and deliver it tomorrow, ooh la la) for English class about a character trait that I think that all people should possess.  My speech is about humility.  

For our past speeches (we give one every quarter), I can't say that I worked as hard as I did on the other ones than I did with this particular one.  I don't know why, maybe it's because I actually felt like it was an important topic.  

Well, here it is if you'd like to see what I'll be stuttering over tomorrow in front of about 25 peers and my teacher.  

Intro:  Funny story!  Some people had been asking what topic I’d be doing for this speech.  To each person, I replied with the word, humility.  I received blank stares and a couple of people even ventured to ask, “Um… isn’t humility the action of humiliating others?”  I proceeded to crack up in their faces.  While humility is not the ability to humiliate others, it is the action of humbling oneself, not being selfish, and not always being in the spotlight.  I believe that humility is a very important character trait for people to possess in order to live a fulfilling life of influencing others.   

A:  As you can see from my little anecdote, humility is often confused to be the action of humiliating people.  According to the thesaurus, humility is also said to be a synonym of meekness, lowliness, and submission. However, I don’t agree with these synonyms.  Meekness is being shy, lowliness is keeping a person in lower ranks, and submission is to give in to someone else’s power.  When I think of a person with humility, I don’t think of a shy person that submits to everything that other people dictate.  Instead, I think of a person who is kind, not overly prideful, and selfless.  These three words represent a person that doesn’t always do things for himself and his own welfare.  They also describe someone who is content with what they have and who is not a show-off. 

B:  One person I admire that possesses a great amount of humility is probably a person that you all know of, but don’t know by name.  If you all remember, one of the suspects of the Boston marathon bombing hid out in a civilian’s boat.  This caused a bunch of uproar about a bombing suspect on the loose.  The civilian, David Henneberry discovered the now injured suspect in the boat, and he quickly called the police.  The suspect was taken away, as was the boat for additional clues.  Some boat companies immediately offered Henneberry a new boat, and many people called him a hero for discovering the bombing suspect.  Instead of thinking only about himself, Henneberry showed humility by not accepting a new boat.  He suggested donating the money for a new boat to the people who were actually hurt by the bomb.  This action was definitely not weak, lowly, or submitting.  It was a confident and humble choice made by a person who was not thinking of just himself or being prideful.

C:  So how do we incorporate humility into our lives?  Well, that’s a good question, because I’m trying to work on humility myself.  One way to humble ourselves is to stop judging other people.  That comes by realizing that most people we judge are people we don’t even know on a personal level.  What gives us the right to act like a know-it-all about strangers?  Another way to incorporate humility into our lives is to recognize the gifts and talents of other people as well as ourselves.  While there may be people in this room who are smarter, faster, and more artsy than you, I can guarantee that there is at least one thing that we, as individuals, excel at more than anyone else here.  Humility helps us appreciate our individual gifts and talents, as well as those of the people around us. 

Conclusion: C.S. Lewis once said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”  Kind.  Selfless.  Not prideful.  Humble.  Confident.  Those are the real words that I would use to define humility on dictionary.com. 

I hope you... enjoyed this speech?  took it to heart?  thought about how much humility you have?  I don't know, haha.  But I did mean every single word I said in that speech.  

Okay!  So I might not be back until after May 15 since I have to cram some history into my head.  Thanks for reading!