Persuasive Speech

When I was younger I always thought that I would just wake up one day and I would be “grown up”, by grown up I don’t mean a certain age or height, but a time in your life when you have to be older and more mature than the people below you, to set a good example for them. That day never really seemed to come, even though I was the same age as some of my childhood heroes like Nick Freer, Steve Hicks and Shane Teirney when they were covering the front page of the Herald Palladium, I didn’t feel like what they looked like when I was younger, at least not until a couple of months ago. I was going to basketball after school just like every other day last spring and after we shot for a little bit and then we chose teams for a few open gym games, and a seventh grader that I had never seen before was picked and ended up being on my team. I had never seen this kid before so I went over and asked him what his name was and he said “Conner” and so I introduced myself only to be given a look of dumbfoundedness, at first I wasn’t sure why but then Conner said “well everyone knows who you are”. I was taken back again and then realized how big of a deal going to the Breslin was, not just for everybody on my team, but for every young “Michael Welch” out there who ever idolized the players of a great team. After feeling incredibly cocky and good about myself I started to realize what a responsibility and privilege it was to have a large group of young boys looking up to me and trying to be “like Mike”. It is a responsibility because I have to set a good example for all those kids who would probably rather do what is say or do than what their own parents might say or do just as I would have done when I was younger. That is why it can be such a dangerous thing to be the idol of a child, because any temper tantrum or practical joke I do is a good example for that kid to do the same. Even though I may think that It’s okay for me but not for that kid or that I’m old enough to do something where he is not, I am still at fault because I knew that he was watching and I still put that idea in his head. But it is also such a privilege that I get the chance to have an impact on these young kids lives and I could possibly make a difference in the way they see themselves and others, if I can only look at the chance I have instead of the burden it could be, I could change something in that little boy’s life, and be the hero that he deserves. This is a responsibility and privilege that I cherish and that makes me feel that I might finally be starting to grow up.