this is late sorry mr. Rehak

I ENDED UP NOT PRESENTING THE EARLIER SPEECH I POSTED, AND I PRESENTED THIS INSTEAD, YAY!

The year is 2019, and at the age of 22 I, Georgia, become the youngest person to win an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The movie was called “Swingsets,”  and it mostly comprised of a teen girl’s inner monologue and flashbacks during her friend’s funeral. The following speech is written in the style as if she made it up on the fly. Also a joke contains the name Freya, who played the lead in her movie.

*applause, congratulatory music*

Georgia: oh my god, oh my god... wow I never expected to be up here... us writers never get any attention as you beautiful actor people know... I’m mostly kept locked up in Freya’s basement [Freya Trefonides starred in my movie]. oh wow... [raises Oscar] to my parents, of course... to Daddy, every late night we stayed up to watch netflix, and to Mama, for every early morning we got up to do my homework to make up for the night I spent watching netflix... to all my friends from high school for not being mad I blatantly stole your personalities to write my characters...

Georgia: Oh no, music, don’t play, I’ve got to say something special before the my fifteen minutes fade... who else... who else to thank... I guess I’d just like to thank every woman who got me here today... the women in filmmaking and Hollywood who cracked open the boy’s club... I know movies and TV tend to not get along, but special shout out to Amy Poehler, a particular feminist idol of mine what my mind was still fresh and forming, deciding what to think and when to yell. As a character on TV... I mean, it’s still running, it’s been on the air for ten years now, but she played a feminist in a small-town government who I found particularly inspiring, who knew she lived in a small conservative town, who knew many men around her still though her too frail to haul garbage let alone do nitty-gritty politics stuff. But she never doubted she could change it, that she could do it... it’s a great attitude towards anything that I admire... off-screen too, Amy Poehler had a show on the internet where she gave advice to girls, and helped them get their bearings in this scary, scary world... Of course, women not in Hollywood too, women who gave me a voice... in my government, in the world.... who got me to work... me and my sisters... women who saved and changed lives....

Georgia: I’m running out of time. Men too! There are great men out there. Whatever. I love human beings. We’re cool. Here’s to creating, and moving forward! Thank you!

Let’s go broader, let’s talk respect. Please, you can hate women til the cows go home, til your wife comes home and makes you supper, all I want is you to treat me with respect. You can think I’m too young, too whimsical, you can say my dress is too short, my dream is too big. But I want you to respect me enough to let me get my foot into your stupid little boys club. To keep and open mind and wonder what I have to offer besides my... my illustrious body. If people truly respected each other, do you think we’d still be talking Israeli-Palestinian peace for another forty years? People would be robbed, of their purses of their... of their future? That women would still fear going out alone?

I can’t change the world yet. This movie hasn’t changed the world, or whatever. But I’ve got your attention for a minute- the attention of the- of America. Do I deserve it? I mean, I’m glad you liked the show...

I hope this sticks with you, I hope people think about what I’ve said tonight... and if not, whatever. I’ll tell you again next time I’m up on this stage. Goodnight! Thank you!

  

Steve Jobs

I've seen this video before. It's kind of depressing. Mostly uplifting, but a lot of it is really sad. Allow me to summarize:

"LIFE YOUR DREAMS AND DO WHAT YOU LOVE, YOU PERFECT SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE xDDDDD" -Steve Jobs

But I still liked it. I think it's what I need right now- reassurance. Because I completely believe in what he's saying, that the only right thing to do is to do what you love, and to do all that you can to find that one thing.

Ten Time-Saving Tips

This video just made me think, "old people." I knew all of these things. But it was super funny to see him freak out like "THIS IS AMAZING WOW TECHNOLOGYYY!!!11!! !!!1!!"

I know the point of TED talks is people are passionate about what they're talking about, but this was just super untinteresting to me even though he did seem enthusiastic. It seemed kind of meh- "wow you didn't know that already? Wow."

Also the sub showed us the wrong video, which I actually liked a lot more, which was a short motivation thing that rocked.

breathing underwater

this video was extremely uncomfortable to watch. In this video, a man details his journey to breaking the world record for holding his breath underwater. The worst part was when he talked about how he tried to create the illusion of not breathing at first. He tried to swallow some scuba equipment (that was gross) and then he thought he might feed oxygen directly into his arteries (that was gross) and then he wanted to breathe liquid oxygen... it was really hard for me to watch. the second time watching it in class I had to close my eyes and plug my ears and take deep breaths. Also, I don't know if this was just me, but he didn't seem that excited. But maybe that's because I closed my eyes. 

acceptance speech

PREMISE: At the age of 86, I have won a lifetime achievement award in activism for helping fix our country’s education system through a career as a teacher, writer, and lobbyist.

When I was a freshman in high school I considered myself somewhat of an “inactive activist.” I wanted to work toward the greater good, but... I was busy. Homework, parties... the internet. And such. But no matter how little I did for my causes,  I was a radical lipstick feminist who wanted to grow up and become a teacher.

Of course, that was the year of the teacher’s strike- when the hours went up and the pay didn’t, when Rahm decided maybe he didn’t feel like getting re-elected after all. We were out of school for a week right at the start of the year. Young, fresh-faced fifteen-year-old Georgia had little idea what was going on, but she knew she loved her teachers, and she knew that she would one day work among them, and she knew she wanted to fight for what was right. And they won! -at least, I think they did. I was never clear on what they were after.

This was also the year my grades began to slip. Blame the internet, blame friends, blame the fun, but I blamed the system. I could’ve been a little biased, but whatever my reasons I think I hit something. I was caught where teachers were stretched so very thin with no time for help, with such dismal pay my Spanish teacher worked two other jobs. My fellow students and I were swept away in a sea of tests, unable to see the patterns of thought and skills we needed to be learning. I was taught in a world where every time I asked a friend how they were today the answer was always “tired,” or “hungry.” And maybe I probably could’ve done better, but I didn’t want to, because I didn’t see the point, and I sure as hell didn’t want to stay in that stupid building any second longer than I had to. I needed to got home, straight away, so I could do three hours of work and worry myself to sleep (or not). That year I had three friends out of school for extended periods of time with depression, and more than that still in school. That was the year I looked around myself and said, “this cannot go on.”

The moral of this story being- I did not sit down and despair. This is the story of how I saw a problem and I decided to fix it. This is the story that changed my life, that motivated my hard work to get myself, my students, and my country to where it is today.