Follow Your Heart

Project 3 Get to the Point

Time:	5 - 7 minutes
Objectives:	•	Organize the speech in a manner that best achieves those purposes.
	•	Ensure the beginning, body, and conclusion reinforce the purpose.
	•	Project sincerity and conviction and control any nervousness you may feel.
	•	Strive not to use notes.

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Imagine you are on your deathbed now, when you think about the years you have lived through, what will be the thing you regret most? For me, it is certainly the fact that I did not have the courage to follow my heart.

A very good evening, dear fellow toastmasters! Today I am glad to give you a speech after which I hope will encourage you to listen to your heart more when you make a decision.

Recently, there was this article written by Bronnie Ware that caught my attention. She is an Australian nurse who spent several years working in the hospital, caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives. Her article summarized 5 regrets most people have. On the top list is this statement: I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honored even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. I truly agree with this. I will tell you why with my own story.

One and a half years ago, I entered junior college. I was so excited to start a new life then, because there are so many options I can choose from. Of course, the first decision I had to make was the choice of subject combinations. It is quite an important decision to make because it can directly affect the quality of my two years study in the college and my A level results. At that time, my only consideration was whether I can get good result, so I chose the most popular combination as most of my peers do. Although I really like history a lot, I did not choose it because it is hard to score. Additionally, science is highly valued compared to humanities in this society. So most people, including my parents told me to do what the society expects when I seek for their advice. Despite the fact that I do not like chemistry at all, I choose chemistry instead of history in the end with a bit of disappointment. Anyway, I thought to myself, everyone should be pragmatic about the actual result and others’ expectations.

Later in the year, I met a girl from the same school as me on the bus. When I asked about her subject combination, she told me that she takes art even though she only started to learn it one year ago; she chose art simply because she loves it. This sounds very surprising to me at that time because in my school, there are only about ten students out of eight hundreds taking this subject, and most importantly, art can take up twice the time you spend on a subject. Without a strong foundation, I definitely will not choose it even if I like drawing. I asked her why she made such a risky choice, and she answered, “if you love something, just go and pursue it with all your effort. Why bother to think so much?” This came as a shock to me because for the first time, I met someone so brave and so determined to follow her passion and inner voice. For a few seconds, I just sat still with my mouth slightly open, not knowing what to say in response. She continued to tell me how much sacrifice she made in order to pursue her dream and how she struggled to stand up every time she met a difficulty. Sometimes she had to sit there for more than five hours just to sketch an assignment. And every day she is the last person to leave the art room because she had to catch up with others who has a stronger foundation.

Until now I can still remember her tone of determination when she was describing all these without any sense of regrets. Several days after, I saw her painting displayed on a wall in my school. It occurred to me that daring to be yourself is the most important thing no matter how hard it is. Success will find you if you are brave enough to overcome all the hindrance. When I look back, I realized that it is one of the most valuable lessons I have learnt in my junior college life.

It is indeed very difficult to listen to our inner voice all the time, especially in this modern society where being pragmatic seems to be the best choice, but if each day that you’re moving toward your dreams without compromising who you are, you’re winning.

I shall end my speech with an inspirational quote from Steve Jobs. “Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

- contributed by club member Yang Shucheng