Dananjaya Hettiarachchi - World Champion of Public Speaking 2014 - Full Speech

Dananjaya Hettiarachchi, “I see something.” “I see something”, Dananjaya Hettiarachchi. You and I are not very different from this flower. Just as this flower is unique, you are unique. We all have something special that makes us equally beautiful. Do you know what makes you special? Now, the answer to that can be a little hard to find because sometimes life has a cruel way of ripping off your petals, breaking you in two, and throwing you in the trash. And when you're broken, it's very hard to feel special. Mr. contest president, my fellow flowers. I remember the first time I broke up when I was seventeen.

I had already failed high school and got myself arrested. Now, I wasn't afraid of the police, but there was one person I was very afraid of and that was my mom. Raise your hand if you had an emotional mother. Let me see. Put them all together and you get my mom. I can hear her screaming outside the police station. Even the police were afraid. She approached me holding the iron bars, looked into my eyes and I saw a tear running down her face. I've seen my mom cry before, but mothers cry three types of tears: tears of joy, tears of sadness, and tears of shame.

And when a son sees his mother crying with shame, that is a moment that changes his life. She looked at me and said, "Son, I want you to be a better man." That night when I drove home, my dad was waiting for me at home. Now my dad is a great dad. He raises his hand if you have a cool dad. Put them all together and you get my dad. My dad came up to me and said, “Son, it's okay.” “You failed your exams. You've already been arrested." "It's okay." "You get that from your mother." "I want you to start working right away." And I said, okay.

Then my dad took me to meet one of his friends named Sam. Now , Sam was an accountant who had an accounting firm and had generously decided to make me his personal assistant and there he was. He looked like a teddy bear, but this man was special. I looked at him and he looked at me and then he said the most surprising thing. : “Son, I see something in you, but I don't know what it is. If you decide to work with me, I can help you find that something.” And I thought, wow, this is the first time in my entire life that someone has told me that they see something in me. and I started working for Sam.

And every day after work, he used to tell me stories about the

world

, about history, about culture, about philosophy, and it was much more interesting than what I learned in school. And I discovered. that I can dream and I started to dream, ladies and gentlemen. After a year I returned to high school, completed my exams and entered university. After success

full

y finishing college, I found a great girl, but not a job. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. Have you ever had that problem? And when you're lost it's hard to feel special. So I went back to my cool dad and said, "Dad, I feel lost." He said, "You're like your mother." Then my father introduced me to this strange club that had a strange name and strange people talking.

At the first meeting, I was told to do something called a "table topic." I did it! But as I spoke I see a strange man sitting in the last row, humble, simple, with the inexhaustible quality of kindness in his eyes. As soon as I finished, he walked up to me, looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Son, I see something in you," "but I don't know what it is." If you come here twice a month, maybe we can find it. something." And ladies and gentlemen, I discovered that I could talk and I love to talk and that led me to become a teacher.

I know what it's like to not have enough money in the bank account. I know what it's like to worry when the bills start coming in. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I wake up my beautiful wife and ask her “honey, why did you marry me?” She says “I saw something in you” “But I still don't know what it is” Ladies and gentlemen today I am a dreamer, I am a speaker and I learned from my wife the inexhaustible quality of unconditional love I was broken and I have been broken, lost and broken many times. times in my life, but the people in my life were able to reach into the trash can and get me back.

If it was up to me, I would never have been able to do that. And that's why if you have wonderful people in your life, it doesn't matter. no matter how ruined, how lost or broken you are, they can rebuild you Ladies and gentlemen, when I look at you I see something in you but I don't know what it is.