My Speech : The Role of Youth in Fighting Against Drug Abuse

Did you know that drug abusers only in this country include around 800 of elementary school students, 7000 of junior high school students, and 10000 of senior high school students? And those numbers will definitely increase year by year. And all their potential, gone. All their hopes and dreams, gone. All their future, gone.

I often hear about drug abuse in our environment. And I have some big questions in my mind. Why do people abuse drug? If you look around you, there are a lot of banners telling you about the effect of drug abuse. So, I think people who abuse drug must have already known about the effect of drug abuse before they began using drug. Well, some may think that they might be immune and the effects of drug won’t affect them. Some people use drugs because of peer pressure. Some want to experiment and try something new. Some feel depressed or bored.

So, will we do nothing to save ourselves, our friends, from this abusing drug? Yes, we’ll do something. Now, I know some of you might be thinking, “What can we do? We’re just a kid.” Right? Why do you think that because we’re just a kid, we can do nothing to fight drug abuse? Well, we can start from ourselves. Participating in some drug education program can be a good idea. Joining some clubs in your school to explore your talent like speech club, science club, or basketball club must be fun. And after all you can influence people around you, your friends, your family, and your neighbors.

Now, what if you know that your friend is a drug abuser?
What if you know that he has been addicted to drug?
What are you going to do?
There are three options that you can choose:
- First you can just ignore him and stay away.
- Second, you can tell him about what he has done, that it was wrong.
- Third you can tell him and try to help him.
I recommend you to choose the last one.

But, how to help a friend with drug addiction?
- Set a positive example and let your friend know how much you care for him and let your friend feel that he can count on you for support.
- Try to educate yourself more on the consequences of drug abuse by going to the school library or browsing the internet for more information.
- Ask the help from your school counselor and ask your counselor if there is a drug education program that you and your friend can participate in.

You got to believe that you can make a change to people around you even though how small what you did. A real story I took from a website about a girl who had a friend with drug addiction.

She writes:
"My friend started using drug after hanging out with people that I wasn’t interested in hanging out with. The drugs had a huge impact to her life. She lost her priority in academic career. So I told her that I wanted to help her. But she didn’t like it and she chose to keep using drugs that would be her decision. I started pushing the issue when we had a girl talk. Then she allowed me to help her. By being in schools club, we kept ourselves busy and met people who had similar interest with. We got involved in drug prevention program in high school which helped her stayed positive and avoid using drugs." - Renya

Her story is only one of other stories which proves to us that we can make a change to people around us.

My Speech : Love

First, let’s talk about the meaning of love. Love is all around us but it’s hard to define it and I do agree with this statement, because love can mean everything. You know, some people say that love is when your mummy kisses your forehead when you’re sleep, or love is when a girl tells a boy that she likes his shirt, then the boy will wear it everyday. Or have you ever found yourself smiling alone when you think about someone? Maybe some of you have experienced that and that could be love. For example, one day Elvi was thinking about Franky when I saw her smiling alone. Of course I was afraid whether she was crazy or not, so I asked her “Elvi, why are you smiling alone?” But the fact is Elvi didn’t realize that she was smiling while she was thinking about Franky. Some other one say that love is when you always spell the name every time you breathe. But for me, love is everything that make me smile, laugh, and happy. And you know what? You guys have made me smile, laugh, happy, and even cry. It means that you do love me, and I do love you.

Well, the different types of love depend on the person whom we love. As long as I remember I have love for God, love for my family, my parents, sister, brother, uncle, aunt, and everyone in my family, love for you, my friend, love for my teachers, love for a man of dream, and don’t forget to have love for yourself. Because, if you can love yourself, you will be able to love someone else.

How and why love can fade. Maybe some of have experienced that in beginning of your love, it seems so strong that you think it will last forever, it will never fade. But in the end it just goes away, you don’t feel the love anymore. I think it because the love is not truly from your heart or it’s not a true love. If it is a true love, it will never fade. Even if it fades, there will always be a spot in your heart that will never go away.

It is just harmful and destructive to love too much. Because you will be too suspended with the one you love. Imagine you are a girl who has relationship with a boy you love. One day you break up with him, and it’s hard for you to continue your life because you have been too suspended with him.

If I were asked to choose whether love or money is more important in our life, I will choose both of them. Because we know each other that it’s hard to live in this world without money. You need money for your school. You need money for the food and drink. You need money for your clothes. You need money to buy your cell phone. See? You can’t live without money. But the life will be meaningless without love. So, I’ll choose both money and love.