My Basic Speech Project #2 piece.
Speech Title: The Silly Things
Brief Description: The silly things I thought were true when I was little
Did you as a child believe that if you swallowed a watermelon seed, it would grow inside your stomach and you would become a tree?
Fellow toastmasters, guests, those who have creative and silly beliefs during their childhood, good evening!
I had a few silly notions that I was so sure of when I was a kid. Have you also believed before that if you swallowed a butong-pakwan, it would grow inside your stomach, and soon enough you would become a tree? How about believing that people on TV shows lived inside the television? Yes?
Aside from these, can you think of at least three more things you thought were true when you were little?
Okay, let me tell you mine. These three silly things are in the context of sexual orientation. I especially picked these three out of the other things down memory lane because I strongly felt and believed these things back then, to a point that it somehow shaped the way I interact with other people.
Here goes…
First, that I was a boy. I really thought I was born a boy. This was around pre-school to first grade years. I went around the neighborhood and in school with boys. I played games for boys and with boys. I acted like a boy. I have girlfriends, I knew their kind existed, but I had no idea I was one of them. I had no clue about the kinds of genitals a boy and a girl should have. I had seen that my younger brothers have different parts than me, but I had never realized the difference. And I had liked the way boys behaved than girls because girls were like so demure and cuties, and I knew I’m not. I never understood why they like barbies.
First day in grade one, my Mama and I wrestled. She forced me to wear the blue skirt school uniform. The memory is so vivid; I cried buckets going to school thinking “why do I have to look like the cuties!?” This is the time when I’ve learned the two types of reproductive organs, not in school but in the tittle-tattle of my friends. And I was like, “my life was a lie”. Geez!
The second silly thing I thought to be true is if a boy and a girl kissed, the girl will get pregnant. Ladies in the house, who also have thought that a kiss could get you pregnant? We’ve seen this in TV. The boy and the girl kissed, everything went in a blurry, and next scene the girl was already pregnant. We were never corrected. We were never taught. Talking about this thing back then is somewhat like a mortal sin. And so I thought, “I, now realizing I’m a girl, should never get to be kissed or I’ll get pregnant at grade one!”
Then at grade five, the reproductive system was taught. I had learned that a sperm from the boys will have to travel to get to the girls. The sperm will meet the girl’s egg and they will unite as one and form a baby. And I thought, “wow how amazing… so if I get to be kissed, the sperm will travel to me and that’s how I’ll get pregnant”. And so I imagined all the instances the sperm can travel and unite with the girl’s egg.
The imagination was so fantastical that it led me to this third silly notion – that other sperm-like from other species could get me pregnant too. What did it mean then? It meant that when I go swimming, in the beach, I have to be extra careful and watch out for the fishes’ and the shokoy’s sperms. The sperms might travel to me and I might get pregnant. And my baby might be an octopus! I know right, it's fantastically silly! I admit this notion lasted longer even after childhood.
So those were the three silly things. I'll stop at three before I’ll get pregnant. I’m pretty sure you also have yourselves a list of silly things you thought were true when you were little.
I find it really amazing how we get through childhood without having a nervous breakdown. Seriously! The amount of silly things we believed as a kid, and sometimes the little lies that we had to tell ourselves just to get through those shocking childhood days, is insane. There were misconceptions, shocking revelations, and plenty to worry about as fair as eating watermelon seeds.
But there were also lessons learned, amazing realizations, and fun stories to tell. In fact, they are great silly stories to tell.
Now that we’re mature, grown-up adults, should we debunk and expose the truth about these myths to our next generation? Or should we not and just let them experience and learn for themselves the same silly experience that we had?
Fellow toastmasters, guests, those who have creative and silly beliefs during their childhood, good evening!
I had a few silly notions that I was so sure of when I was a kid. Have you also believed before that if you swallowed a butong-pakwan, it would grow inside your stomach, and soon enough you would become a tree? How about believing that people on TV shows lived inside the television? Yes?
Aside from these, can you think of at least three more things you thought were true when you were little?
Okay, let me tell you mine. These three silly things are in the context of sexual orientation. I especially picked these three out of the other things down memory lane because I strongly felt and believed these things back then, to a point that it somehow shaped the way I interact with other people.
Here goes…
First, that I was a boy. I really thought I was born a boy. This was around pre-school to first grade years. I went around the neighborhood and in school with boys. I played games for boys and with boys. I acted like a boy. I have girlfriends, I knew their kind existed, but I had no idea I was one of them. I had no clue about the kinds of genitals a boy and a girl should have. I had seen that my younger brothers have different parts than me, but I had never realized the difference. And I had liked the way boys behaved than girls because girls were like so demure and cuties, and I knew I’m not. I never understood why they like barbies.
First day in grade one, my Mama and I wrestled. She forced me to wear the blue skirt school uniform. The memory is so vivid; I cried buckets going to school thinking “why do I have to look like the cuties!?” This is the time when I’ve learned the two types of reproductive organs, not in school but in the tittle-tattle of my friends. And I was like, “my life was a lie”. Geez!
The second silly thing I thought to be true is if a boy and a girl kissed, the girl will get pregnant. Ladies in the house, who also have thought that a kiss could get you pregnant? We’ve seen this in TV. The boy and the girl kissed, everything went in a blurry, and next scene the girl was already pregnant. We were never corrected. We were never taught. Talking about this thing back then is somewhat like a mortal sin. And so I thought, “I, now realizing I’m a girl, should never get to be kissed or I’ll get pregnant at grade one!”
Then at grade five, the reproductive system was taught. I had learned that a sperm from the boys will have to travel to get to the girls. The sperm will meet the girl’s egg and they will unite as one and form a baby. And I thought, “wow how amazing… so if I get to be kissed, the sperm will travel to me and that’s how I’ll get pregnant”. And so I imagined all the instances the sperm can travel and unite with the girl’s egg.
The imagination was so fantastical that it led me to this third silly notion – that other sperm-like from other species could get me pregnant too. What did it mean then? It meant that when I go swimming, in the beach, I have to be extra careful and watch out for the fishes’ and the shokoy’s sperms. The sperms might travel to me and I might get pregnant. And my baby might be an octopus! I know right, it's fantastically silly! I admit this notion lasted longer even after childhood.
So those were the three silly things. I'll stop at three before I’ll get pregnant. I’m pretty sure you also have yourselves a list of silly things you thought were true when you were little.
I find it really amazing how we get through childhood without having a nervous breakdown. Seriously! The amount of silly things we believed as a kid, and sometimes the little lies that we had to tell ourselves just to get through those shocking childhood days, is insane. There were misconceptions, shocking revelations, and plenty to worry about as fair as eating watermelon seeds.
But there were also lessons learned, amazing realizations, and fun stories to tell. In fact, they are great silly stories to tell.
Now that we’re mature, grown-up adults, should we debunk and expose the truth about these myths to our next generation? Or should we not and just let them experience and learn for themselves the same silly experience that we had?
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