Be Prepared

Before I start, I must apologize in advance. I apologize if my speaking might be too fast for some and not fast enough for others, and I apologize if I screw up a couple of words. I take after my mother when it comes to speeches. They are usually long and wordy and leave you confused the second I begin. However, I have the perfect remedy for that. I’m not making sense because you are not making sense of my nonsense. Still don’t know what I’m saying? It’s alright, it took Salger 2 years and some explanations to understand that phrase. You might want to go ask her if you’re still confused.

Well, good evening Classmates and (Teacher(s)). It’s not evening you say? Well, yes, it is in fact. Somewhere on planet Earth it is evening right now. Some of you might take this as me just being sarcastic, and some of you might take this as preparation while creating this speech. To be honest, it is both. Sarcasm helps, especially going through High School; however, sarcasm is not helpful if someone just insults you with a phrase that you have never heard before. You look into your stockpile of sarcastic remarks but find nothing that works for that particular situation. If you had been more prepared with a wider range of remarks you might not be fumbling over yourself to say something or just quietly taking their insult. Trust me, been there, done that, and I got better. I even had a comeback for a certain pineapple conversation. Now that comeback and the resulting conversation has gone down in Cross Country history to forever be an inside joke that confuses every other runner we ran against.

Preparation does a lot for people to make them better, and this is coming from a man that rarely prepares for anything. That made all my teachers angry, especially since I did pretty good in their classes. I remember in Biology, Ms. Boucher told us the class before that we had a quiz to not to forget and say “What? We have a quiz today?” as soon as we found out. Stupid me, forgot and blew it off. I came into the room and accidentally, (between you and me it wasn’t all that accidental) I said those exact words. Ms. Boucher looked disappointed and handed out the test. Later, as she was grading, she was talking about how if people don’t study then they won’t do good on the quiz. Then she handed me my corrected test. To put it simply, it was already corrected when I handed it in, and she just wasted 5 minutes looking at a perfect test. I then of course interrupted her and gleefully stated, “Well, unless you’re me”. Once again I got that Ms. Boucher dirty look. DON’T DO THAT! Somehow I had, and my Dad’s not going to be happy about it, luck on my side. Prepare OR ELSE! It is essential to success. I don’t know how I made it through high school the way I did. I did better than I thought I ever could. When I went down for my Senior Interview they informed me that I was number ten in our class, and that’s not the list for most sarcastic people, I would be number 3 on that list. Luckily, Ethan Richard put me in my correct spot and pushed me out of where I didn’t belong, as he had truly worked for that spot, and earned it.

In all seriousness, who knows what’s going to happen in the next minute? How about what’s going to happen tomorrow? Or even, 5 years from now. If you do, I beg you to please give me the winning lotto numbers…. For the rest of you, no one really knows what’s going to happen next, so when people give you hints, you better start preparing so that you can have the best outcome. Even when you have no advanced notice, follow the saying, “Hope for the best, but always prepare for the worst”.  Build yourself a nuclear bomb shelter, invite some friends over to help with fending off the Zombie hoard on Snapchat, not that I would know, I’m still rockin’ a flip phone. Make it so that no matter what unbelievable situation happens to you, and yes, this includes graduating, you are prepared. In true Andrew Day fashion, I will now quote a movie that perfectly sums everything up. From the mouth of Benjy Gaither in Hoodwinked, the 2005 version;

Be prepared, be prepared

This lesson must be shared

This lesson must be shared, be prepared

Be prepared, be prepared

And unless you got a spare

You got one life so handle it with care

You have my permission to blame Paquette for my horrible singing. So ,remember this song by a goat as when the tracks were blown out from underneath him he remembered his helicopter horns and was prepared to save his life by flying off into the sunset. Be the goat, as long as you live be prepared, especially in the near future,as our futures become more open with more opportunities by the second. So much so that we don’t know what to do with them all. Just BE PREPARED for every possible thing that comes around the corner. Just an fyi, this works best if you prepare but don’t get worried about what’s coming around the next corner. This is 001.00 FM Day turning off for the last time.

Photo on Foter.com