Personal Narrative Speech

Foolish or Creative

As everyone was, I was once a naïve child. I was very active and made many accidents. The problem was that I was hyperactive: I couldn't stop making accidents with my extraordinary thinking. For example, I once jumped off from second floor, believing that I can fly! Moreover, I even decided to dye my hair red and green thinking they are cool… which actually resulted in a watermelon look. Anyway, because of my bizarre behaviors, my parent thought of me as one of two: foolish, or something else. This continued, until they finally made the decision due to an incident.

The story begins in my first grade classroom. I don’t remember specifically, but I’m sure that the teacher taught us about sea animals, because our teacher decided to decorate our classroom with sea animals shortly after the class. Once the teacher made her decision, she ordered us to make our favorite sea animals with color papers, by tomorrow.

After school, I wondered what my favorite sea animal was. Even though I learned so many of them that morning, I thought none of them were cool enough to be my favorite. (Well, being cool was my priority at that time) Suddenly, one specific ‘sea animal’ flashed through my mind. It was smart and importantly, very cool. Also, I had seen it often on TV shows. Without hesitation, I started creating this animal.

What came to your mind when I said “very smart, very cool, and often shown on TV?” I believe most of you thought of dolphin. Yes. They are smart, and there are many dolphin shows. But my favorite ‘sea animal’ was not dolphin. It was a very soft organism, and had little spots on its body. It is yellowish, and has unique body structure. Still don’t get it? Here’s the last hint: it wears square pants and lives in a pineapple. Yes. What I brought to the teacher was a “SpongeBob”

Its sounds quiet funny, isn't it? The problem was… that I was really serious with my creation. At this time, I really believed SpongeBob was a living organism. Also, I thought there was some of wild “SpongeBobs” living under the ocean.

Teacher thought I had serious problems with my thinking, so she tried to diagnose my problem by asking questions.

“How come you thought SpongeBob is real?” She asked me.

“Because it’s real! I even have one in my home!”

“Then, where is it?” She asked me with a “What are you talking about” face.

“My mother uses him to wash the dishes everyday”

“Are you talking about sponge?”

“Yes. Sponge is dead body of SpongeBob, and we use them to wash dishes.” I concluded.

Even I, have no idea where this idea came from. But due to this conversation, teacher alleged that I was rather foolish, or was affected too much by TV.

Later, when the school had an official parent-teacher meeting, my teacher broached this topic, and said there should be correction to my wrong thinking. She even assumed that I was sitting in front of TV most of days. Well, even though this assumption was entirely correct, my parent had different ideas: They rather chose to believe that my actions were of natural creativity. Also, they started encouraging me to think, and to live more freely.

This memory of SpongeBob itself wasn't really important. It was just a silly happening. However, the decision my parent made due to SpongeBob had big impact on me. I’m not sure whether this decision made me more creative or not; but I’m sure it made me become who I am now. What would have happened, if my parent adopted the teacher’s idea and thought me as a slow, unintelligent kid? I would have lived in suppressed environment to become a structured child, and lost my own thinking skills. I might have studied better, but I would never been satisfied with myself.

For these reasons, I really appreciate this piece of memory.

Thank you for listening.