Year 8 English Speech Task – Being Courageous

My name is Georgia and today I am going to talk about my Year 8 journey in 2023.

Today we gather to celebrate the end of Year 8, it has been a big rollercoaster with bumps on the way and that is what I will be talking about today.

The best highlights of Year 8 for me included the Wednesday afternoon sport because I got to play lots of different sports I have never played before, like Gaelic. It wasn’t easy at the start because I didn’t know the rules of the game but after a couple of weeks of playing it, I started to understand the rules.

The other highlights for me were going to Bounce for the Year 8 Big Day Out with all of my friends and racing against them on the rock wall and eating a large pizza together, even though we were getting KFC for lunch. I am glad we ate the pizza because the KFC was late, but that was okay.

‘Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail’ – Ralph Wald Emerson

I think this precept means do not follow someone, or something that you do not want to. Do your own thing and do something with someone you love or care about. If you follow someone that treats you badly and makes you feel bad and makes you feel down about yourself, you should not be following them and follow someone that cares about you and makes you feel happy about yourself.

The theme of my precept is ‘being courageous’, because you must have courage to step out of your comfort zone and do something that you have never done before, for example talk to someone to make new friends or step out of a bad friendship group.

When I use courage in my learning, it motivates me so that I can focus on my work, and I get it done even when I do not feel like doing it.

A piece of advice for Year 8 is to be friendly and nice to everyone even if you have never talked to them before, because you never know, you might be best friends with them. Also, just get out of your comfort zone.