6th Place Winner, 2025 Secondary - National Public Speaking Competition | Harshini, Swiss Cottage — Transcript

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1. 0:06Contestant number 20, Maharaja Hashini
2. 0:10Vasha.
3. 0:13>> [applause and cheering]
4. 0:17>> TOO MUCH.
5. 0:19Too much. Maharaja Hashini Vasha.
6. 0:24I have to admit something.
7. 0:28I'm scared of people.
8. 0:31I am so scared in fact that I change who
9. 0:34I am just to be accepted.
10. 0:38And I'm pretty sure that everyone else
11. 0:39in this room has been there, too.
12. 0:43I was taught to water myself down or
13. 0:47make myself a little better so that I
14. 0:49could be just right.
15. 0:52Not too much, but not too little.
16. 0:56Because we are all told that we are too
17. 0:59much.
18. 1:00We're told, "You're too smart. YOU'RE
19. 1:02TOO DUMB. YOU'RE TOO OUTGOING, TOO SHY,
20. 1:04TOO LOUD, TOO QUIET, too fat, too
21. 1:06skinny, too much."
22. 1:10And I tried exceptionally hard to fit
23. 1:14into those standards.
24. 1:16Well,
25. 1:17I used to have a group of friends who
26. 1:19were nothing like me.
27. 1:20The things they liked, the things they
28. 1:22didn't, their interests and their values
29. 1:26were all really different to who I was
30. 1:28as a person.
31. 1:30And of course, of course, knowing me, I
32. 1:32tried to fit in.
33. 1:34I slacked off in class. I pretended I
34. 1:37never looked like I tried too hard. I
35. 1:39made sure that [snorts] I fit in.
36. 1:43Just to look and feel
37. 1:46like I belonged.
38. 1:48I kept that act up for months and
39. 1:51months. I wore that mask like it was my
40. 1:53second skin.
41. 1:55>> [snorts]
42. 1:56>> Until one day,
43. 1:57I came home
44. 1:58and I dropped my bags and I just laid
45. 2:01there
46. 2:02in the silence.
47. 2:04No music, no distractions, no one to
48. 2:07compare myself to.
49. 2:10In that silence, it hit me deeply.
50. 2:13I felt so empty.
51. 2:16Even though I was surrounded by people,
52. 2:19I had never felt more alone.
53. 2:23After hating myself into version that
54. 2:26they liked, did I like myself?
55. 2:30That day, I realized something really
56. 2:32important.
57. 2:33Trying to fit into that group
58. 2:35felt like wearing shoes that were the
59. 2:38wrong size.
60. 2:40At first, at first, I squeezed my toes
61. 2:42pretending like everything was all
62. 2:44right.
63. 2:45But no matter how hard I tried, they
64. 2:47never felt right.
65. 2:50And the longer I wore them, the more I
66. 2:52forgot how comfortable the right pair
67. 2:55could be.
68. 2:57It wasn't until I took them off
69. 3:00until I realized that I was never meant
70. 3:02to be in those shoes. There were other
71. 3:04shoes out there. Ones that were made for
72. 3:07me, ones that didn't hurt to wear, ones
73. 3:09I didn't have to squeeze to fit into.
74. 3:12There was a better place for me to fit
75. 3:14in.
76. 3:15Because I will never be enough in rooms
77. 3:17that I was never meant to be in.
78. 3:21The problem was never that you were too
79. 3:24much or too sensitive or too loud. The
80. 3:27problem was the people around you were
81. 3:30too small to hold the bigness of your
82. 3:33personality.
83. 3:35They themselves don't allow themselves
84. 3:37to be authentic. They despise the ones
85. 3:40in fact who remind them of what they
86. 3:43could never be.
87. 3:45If you've ever been made to feel like
88. 3:47you're too much or not enough, stop
89. 3:51shrinking.
90. 3:52Stop editing. Stop apologizing. No one
91. 3:56No one was ever put onto this earth to
92. 3:57be just right. Be the loud laugh. Be the
93. 4:01deep feeler. Be the one who takes up
94. 4:04space.
95. 4:06Because you are not here to be someone
96. 4:08else. You are here to be you.
97. 4:12Acceptance and validation when it comes
98. 4:14from someone else is not real.
99. 4:18Real belonging begins the moment you
100. 4:21stop deciding and apologizing for who
101. 4:24you are.
102. 4:26Thank you.
103. 4:27>> [applause]