The Last Word

By Ryan Kenton | Posted: Thursday June 2, 2022

Lads, today I want to talk to you about something big. Something so gargantuan in size, that there is just no way I can speak about everything I want to talk about in the few moments that I have here with you right now.

Something I believe we all have a responsibility to try and achieve. Something that can only work if each and every one of you sitting right here in front of me does a little part. I want to talk to you about making the world a better place.

I want you guys to take a step back with me, to open your eyes and expand your horizons. What if the world was your world. What does that look like? I'm not just talking about this auditorium or the bricks that make up the walls of this school or your home. The whole world. What if we could gather a world of different perspectives, different ideas, different understandings and feelings and we could combine them into your world. What if in this world of yours we appreciate the life of other cultures, passions, backgrounds and sexualities. Through your eyes and in your world, you experience the love and the hate, the war and the peace, light and with it in hand the darkness. Take the knowledge and experience of your world and use it as a tool for good. Wouldn't that make you a better agent for change moving forward?

Step back in with me now, I want each and every one of you to once again indulge me for a minute. What if through our experiences, our interactions with our surroundings, the time spent with your friends, our brothers, we take those experiences and the knowledge we have to use them as a tool for change? A tool for helping someone out. A tool for being kinder. Let me tell you the world is a big place. You don't need me to tell you that. For some of us, our worlds aren't as big as others. Our horizons aren't as far as possibly the person sitting next to you. Our world, our environment, our culture and our lives won't change in a day. I said at the beginning that it was our collective responsibility to make the world a better place. But there isn't us without you. It begins with you.

Every day a miracle occurs. For a split second, a moment in time two worlds collide. These moments can last a fraction of a second. With a blink, you miss it and before you realise it's gone. Two worlds of completely different experiences, different upbringings and lifestyles, different ideologies and religions. These collisions occur in different shapes and sizes. Every day your world collides with many. But it's what we do in those moments that matter. We have the power to change the course of these worlds forever. We have the power to create a chain reaction of events that will far outlive the time we have here on this planet. Within the time I find myself in your worlds at this very moment, we have the power in each and every one of us to be a champion of kindness.

Through the interactions we have with each other, our friends, our brothers in the corridors, and the strangers in the street, we have the power to add a little fraction of happiness or love into the worlds and lives of others. The energy it requires is small, the effort minimal but the outcomes can cause waves that batter stereotypes, overpower hate, and at the end of the day make the world a better place.

With these collisions, we learn. We as humans gather knowledge and wisdom that makes us who we are as individuals. Take those experiences and that knowledge to learn from others, to teach someone else. Hit the road and explore, widen your horizons, expand your understanding, find refuge in the unknown, and shelter in the uncomfortable. Embrace the commonality in friends and the differences in foes. Because to change the world we have to listen, we have to be patient, we have to lend a helping hand to those who are down, and we have to look out for our friends and the strangers alike. That is how we make the world a better place. That is how we combine our efforts to create change. To change the world we must first expand ours and in that, we have an opportunity. Take that opportunity. Make your world a place worth fighting for. A better world to live in.

In closing, instead of leaving you with a quote, I will leave you with a question. When two worlds collide, in that split second you have with another person in this ever-expanding and changing universe, how do you want to be remembered when you leave?