Humanitys Greatest Weapon is Faith

[Applause]

what is humanity’s greatest weapon

nuclear warfare a knife a pen

i believe that it is faith it is a

double-edged sword

that acts as something that can make us

infinitely stronger

but it can also destroy us

it can be the rope that strings bones

together or the very knife

that severs it cliche

same here that’s exactly what i thought

as i wrote those very lines into my

speech

but think about it what has us all here

alive

and listening to this speech faith

it’s small but it’s one of the most

fundamental elements of our lives

and so at this point you must be

wondering what this 15 year old kid is

doing

talking about this huge abstract topic

of faith

and well to answer that question i’m

here today to share with

you why i feel that faith is so very

important in my life

before i kick off into my speech here

are some things about myself

i’m 15. i love basketball

and like every other 15 year old on this

planet i have a hell load

of trust issues and it starts from the

most fundamental issue of trusting

whether my k drama

is going to be released on time all the

way

to trusting myself and the people around

me

you see i love building these huge huge

walls around myself

to protect myself from trusting

making sure i have no expectations

whatsoever because

no disappointment and then being like

this super strong person that never

breaks

now let me rewind for us a little

in secondary one we were playing this

match

27 june 2018.

we were 30 minutes into the game i had

this golden opportunity

a free lane crossover

shoot okay well at least that’s what i

imagined in my head but the shot never

really happened

because i fell in sight flat to the

ground

hearing a pop sound from my knee

i tried standing back on call only to

fall back again

i could not walk literally

things just happened so fast they took

me to the hospital the doctor said

i told this super important ligament

known as the acl

i was out from all batches that year

this essentially meant

i could not walk run or even bend my

knee

okay mind you at this point i did not

care that my k dramas were getting

released

late so

i remember thinking to myself as a 13

year old dejected kid

lying on bed crying and as i soaked my

pillows

wet i remember this thought that hit me

why did i think i would never fall

why was it that the only thought that

occurred to me was making that basket

and i fell asleep to that very thought i

was never really able to answer that

question

because like every other time my

wonderful coping mechanisms kicked in

again

and i built those walls again higher

than before

rehabilitation was painful even more so

because i refused to trust the people

around me i refused

to rely on the people around me i

refused to have faith

and so one night during that period i

remember i was going to bed once again

just thinking of the same thought

and my mom entered the room and she lied

down next to me and she asked me

have i been a stranger to you for the

past 13 years

and at that moment i thought to myself

what the hell is she spewing

teenagers and then she proceeded with

you may be strong but you only go to

sleep

with the faith that you will wake up

tomorrow morning

i hesitated for a second what did she

mean

it was a simple reminder to the lost me

that even in the darkness of the night

these small elements of faith

are what keeps us going that although

today was not that good a day maybe

tomorrow when we wake up

it will be a better day and so at 11 pm

with a major brain lag

only one word resounded to me faith

it was my unseen underlying trust

that i would not fall and come to think

of it

the most important faith that we all

have is the trust

that in the next 0.001 seconds we will

not stop breathing

because if we did not have this

confidence this belief

this trust that we would not stop

breathing

we’d all be dead so yes

unlike a very model student the next day

i went to school

and paid attention in no class

whatsoever

after this realization and went home and

broke down in front of my mom

i cried knowing that my mom was there

for me

i had faith in her and so if anything

happened my walls came down

i had faith that she would take care of

me that she would be there for me and

can i just say that wow

things were so much easier because now i

could finally share my feelings with

with someone no matter how much we want

to run from it

the reality is that all we want is for

someone to trust us

and for someone to have our backs and

for that someone or something to trust

us too

i’d like to take a moment now to say

that faith to me at least

isn’t something that can be given a

rigid definition to i think it’s more of

an emotion

that’s given the meaning trust

confidence

loyalty and even love to some extent and

although yes

this sounds super positive and super

good looking

we all know that trust issues don’t just

go away if k dramas get released on time

i still have an issue trusting and i’m

so sure that my best friends will agree

with that statement

110 but if there’s anything

i learned it was the fact that if not

for my

friends and family who had so much hope

and faith in me

i would not be functioning

and so only with this faith that my mom

had in me that my friend’s head in me

was i able to get through my recovery

i’ll never forget what my friend eunice

said to me

the day i could finally start running

again i

believe in you her faith

is what gave me the will to get better

do better

this acl experience reminded me just how

important faith is in our lives

so only with this faith that my friends

heard in me

was i able to get through one of the

darkest points in my life

and so as my friend jq once said the

stronger ones

are not the ones that believe they can

do it on their own

but rather the ones that appreciate and

understand the value

of having faith in something or someone

faith a simple word but brings a

hurricane of impact in someone’s life

although many a time it’s challenging

and it’s not easy to have faith

what cost is not having it worth it to

wrap it all up

i stand here today not to give a

concluding statement

but to merely remind us that faith still

exists

in this crazy world so if you ask me in

this 15 year old point in my life

what faith is it is hoping

hoping that things will get better

trusting

trusting that someone will have my back

and believing believing

in myself faith

you