"This I Believe" Speech Video & Music Video

My speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd2xuH9Pva0

Music Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQBxAL33l54

reflection on writing final project essay

At this point I am pretty much done with my final project essay. I used all the materials that I have on my mind so far. However, considering from another angle, I have not yet started to practice delivering my speech, which can be another time consuming task in that I am never good at reciting. As a result, I think I am keeping a good pace.

There were a few difficult moments that I stumbled when I was trying to get done my final essay.  At first I overthought, thinking that I have to cover all my beliefs and the rules I abide by. After realizing that this was probably not going to work, I altered my goal to focus on only one of my points of view instead. In this way, it is way easier to illustrate and deliver my point to the audience. Also, when I changed my goal, I changed my strategies accordingly. Unlike before I tried to tell several little stories, I concentrated on one events that means the most to me, which is my experience of recording my own song. It occurred to me that this was the right decision because this only happened less than have a year ago, when I started to write, ideas and details of this event just came to me naturally. Compared to the confusions I had earlier, it did not take me too long to finish the first draft in that I already had everything I wanted to say on my mind. 

Now that most of my problems are fixed, I will only focus on delivering. After reading my essay word for word, I corrected a few mistakes and changed a few sentences that did not sound right. It turns out that to proofread is a good way to enhance the quality of essays. In the future, I will practice more because it helps with my delivery too. 

First Draft for "This I believe"

Hello, everyone. If it is not this speech, I bet that most of my fellow students had not yet pondered this philosophical question of “what I believe.” And yes, I am one of you guys who find it hard to answer this question. As a result, instead of getting into the point of what my faith is, I will talk about my passion instead.

Music is my life passion. However, I never knew my greatest passion would lead to one of my toughest challenges. Last summer, I started an internship at a music company. Seeing my potentials, the company decided to let me produce a song about the compelling history of my city. 

As both the singer and the lyricist, I was only given five days to write and record the song. I was simultaneously excited and concerned about the heavy task in that most of my city's history is buried underground due to the bombing during WWII.

After three days of visiting the oldest neighborhoods in the city, I discovered a story that triggered my sparks: a pilot was to leave for war the day before his wedding. Before he left on his jet, he circled the airport three times and dropped a letter to his fiancée, promising to marry her if he came back safely. 

I was deeply moved by this tale, but I wanted to get more in depth background knowledge before I started writing. Therefore, I spent three days in Chongqing Municipal Library to find more evidence. I even found a writer who had interviewed the pilot's wife. He told me more about the couple's love. After the research, I spent a whole day in my room, picking my lyrics word for word.

When I played the demo for the director, he was incredibly impressed, and he even let me use the finest studio in the city to record my song. After this, I went over the standard process of a new musician to produce the music video. When I held the first copy of the CD in my hand, I could not control my excitement. I repeated in my mind over and over "I am an musician now." I realized that this could be the beginning of my music career.

After I moved away from my family three years ago, it was not uncommon for me to face challenges in my life, but I always remembered one thing: it is in times of great pressure that wonderful works can be produced. And this I believe.

Proposal for Final Project

My final project "This I believe" speech will be talking about the alternation of the insight of myself, or in another way, how I changed to be the person I am over the years after I came to Cheshire Academy.

I am sure that no matter how mature you are right now, when you were my age, everyone had suffered from being lost in this beautiful world, even losing their identity. Not even my favorite writers Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. However, it is the progress we make, the every step we take at this age makes it the best years of our lives. And this is the reason why this is my senior speech is going to be about this.

I will carry my topic with a few stories in order to involve the audience and not to be boring.

First I will talk about the story of how I became a Post Graduate student in Cheshire as well as my feeling of being one. This is a very unique identity as both an international student and also a PG. To explain the reason for the fact, I will then take a step forward and talk about how I changed from a student who loved math and physics to be more into history and social science.

The second change I will talk about is the change of being abroad. Being away with family was not easy for a fifteen-year-old. When I packed my stuff and went to the airport, I literally felt my world was only a bag by my side. I have faced challenges that I had no idea I could overcome again and again. Every time, there are a hundred thoughts in my mind, but what I have never thought of is to give up. I feel like this would be a good topic because it reflects the most authentic feeling deep in my heart.

Outline for speech "This I believe"

Thesis: my speech will focus on changes. (1) the change I faced after coming to a America (2)change on my personal pursuit

point i
i will emphasize on my separation with family. I have to live by myself at the age of 15, facing every challenge with my bare arms.

point ii
As I gained more knowledge, I started to ponder what my life should be like. I changed from a boy who take a vow to achieve greatness to a man who tries to experience the true taste of life.

Reflection on the old "This I believe speeches"

I first read the one by the German student. She added a lot of sense humors, for example, saying what she always expected was a letter from Hogwarts. Other dictions like her families furniture "floating on the Atlantic" was also very vivid. Her words gave her speech a graphic sense of reality as an internationals student who moved to America with her family. It is a really good speech and I don't think there is anything bad about it.

The second speech I read had me confused in the beginning. I did not understand how "a life like TV show" is "where we are either always in the right, or are always forgiven." After finishing the first page I still did not see what her points are. In my speech I will probably give out my points straightforward.

What I learned from this two speeches is that: first, I need more sense of humor. When I read the first speech, my interest was immediately grasped. I want the same effect on my audience. Second, I need to be more straightforward about my opinion, in other words, what is the thing that I believe, which the second speech did not do se well. I will mind that.