Julia Leeming

English Speech
January 2024

Imagine with me, for a moment, stepping into a hospital nursery, and looking around you see tiny
cots – as you gaze at the miracle of life, at new borns, with their fists curled, eyes shut tight, as
you watch the little chests rise and fall as they breathe and embark on their journey- Do you like me
wonder who will rise to greatness, who will leave a mark on the world, whose names will be etched
into history books- who will become famous or infamous? Will it be the one whose cry demands attention or
the one whose tiny
fingers reach out to touch mine?

Friends, Matrics, fellow humans, the question that has been debated for centuries by philosophers,
psychologists, neurologists and today pupils across South Africa – is the question of humanity – what
it truly mean to be human, and is there a magic ingredient that makes one born great, or achieve
greatness- is it a case of nature versus nuture, is it genetics or DNA?

Look around you, 17 or 18 years ago you all took your first breath and embarked on the journey of
life, and one day we will all take our last breath. Humanity has this is common, a simple dash or the
line that separates our birth and our death – and it is up to us to make our own dash count.
Our dash may be short or long, and each dash – will be combined with high’s and low’s, success and
failure, similar to our heart beats. But will our lives be considered great or not so great?

Will our lives be summarised in the great words of Shakespeare, when he wrote, “THE evil that men
do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones” – Can life be simply summarized as a
maths symbol, positive, or negative, or neutral, not really having a major impact at all.

What makes us human apart from our beating hearts – well this complex question cant simply be
answered even using google Bard or ChatGBT. There is no definitive answer. Humanity encompasses
so many facets from the ability to think, to feel, to problem solve, to communicate, to become self
aware. Humans possess the ability to know right and wrong, we seek meaning and purpose and
contemplate the mystery of our existence. Aristotle argued that morality is learned –Sigmund Freud
–believed that babies have a blank moral slate meaning that we are not born good or evil. The ability
for compassion, collaboration and cooperation is essential to our survival and success, through self
expression we create culture by sharing tales through music, art, literature, and story telling.
One of the stories that has been passed down to me by my mother and by her mother before her is
that of a farmer who planted a bamboo seed. For 5 long years while he watered it, and nurtured it-
nothing happened and then – after 5 long years of patiently waiting – the seed sprouted and grew to
90 metres tall in 5 weeks.

Our potential for greatness, can be seen as this seed. We may not grow immediately but with
patience, persistence and being nurtured– we too can become great and reach our full potential. We
can make our dash’s count, the dash may be to finish matric, to become a doctor, whose life is dedicated to
healing, or an artist who captivates the human spirit with the stroke of a brush, or a teacher whose life is
dedicated to enriching minds, or an activist like Greta Thunberg who has changed perception on climate
change.

Greatness is not a singular path, it is a maze of possibilities. We may be remembered by a single act
of kindness or by changing the world. Greatness is not confined in the halls of fame, or in history
books, or even on Instagram, it may take a while to grow – or it may be a flash of brilliance in your own time.
Greatness – is the Dash that you create between your birthday and your end date. It lies within the
walls of this class, and in the ordinary people who do extraordinary things.
 Index:
Pink highlight- copy word for word from chatGPT
Yellow highlight- information from chatGPT

Bibliography:

WebMechanix (2020) ‘The evil men do...’, Withum. Available at: https://www.withum.com/resources/evil-
men-do/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20evil%20that%20men%20do,Antony%20in%20Shakespeare’s
%20Julius%20Caesar. (Accessed: 30 January 2024).

Chinese bamboo tree motivational story (2018) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=hLJFx_b2A2k (Accessed: 30 January 2024).

Greta Thunberg (2024) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_Thunberg (Accessed:

01 February 2024).