Hello everyone, I recently took part in a Young Woman’s speech contest covering themes of career, marriage and motherhood. As one of 7 finalists, it was rather nail biting stuff because I competed against such eloquent, and powerful speakers. I’ve never really done public speaking before so I had been stressing about it prior to the event. Yet, in all honesty, I’m grateful for the experience, as never would I ever give a speech if it were not for the encouragement and support I received from my nearest and dearest. I’m grateful I could take the opportunity to speak from the heart and reveal a bit of my thoughts toward the perceptions of womanhood based on my personal viewpoint and experience. I would encourage anyone to do the same because you can gain so much from others as well as evaluate your own abilities. Even though, the results revealed I landed as a runner up, nothing can displace the fact the whole experience was rather humbling and gratifying. It was a pleasure to give a speech within such a lovely atmosphere swarmed with a super lovely audience. Though it was vulnerable in ways, I was thankful to hear the lovely responses about it afterwards. I have to say my highlight was, my mother grinning so widely among the audience when I took centre stage. In a way, I was rather taken aback hehe and I could not help but feel warm inside.
Anyways, I thought I would share you the written speech I wrote that got me to the speech contest as one of the finalists. We were not to read from it, so for 8-10mins I talked around it, diluting the speech to a few bullet points. But yeah, here is the full written speech. Enjoy~☺️
What does it mean to be a woman? Throughout history, the perceptions of women have changed dramatically. How we, as women, are perceived today may be settled on a greater platform to succeed in what we want to do with our lives as oppose to the extremely oppressive lives women have endured in the past.
As a 29 year old woman, I am blessed to be living in the 21st century. My life has been heavily shaped, and my mental well being scaffolded, by the heartfelt love of my dear mother who in a world of great uncertainty, protects and nurtures the vulnerable girl inside me, of whom to this day has become a grown young woman.
Despite the negative influences that surround you and me among the media, within our day-to-day lives, I believe the virtues that women live by are strongly rooted in the existence of our being. We have the capacity to love, care, nurture and be sensitive as our own mothers are and as our own grandmothers were. Through these qualities, we can secure relationships, help those less fortunate, and be the change for a better tomorrow.
I will talk on my own personal experience as a woman, and how I have been brought up to perceive the nature of womanhood.
I come from a family of six. I have three sisters and two brothers. Back when I was a little girl, as the youngest daughter, I was shy, quiet and very sensitive who loved to read, write in my diary and play with my dolls. My timidness somewhat added strain on forming relationships beyond the family. However, I cannot ignore the value of the attention I received from my siblings. This dependency upon them helped me to feel safe and I could surmount barriers I never thought I could. As for my parents, their devout faith in God runs through the centre of our family life. They always gave us their utmost love and encouragement, and still do, as well as principles to live by.
One major principle of life my parents instilled in me was the importance of abstinence. They emphasised the importance of keeping pure and reserving my love for my future husband.
I admit there were times I wished I had a childhood sweetheart or could be with someone, yet nothing can replace the beauty of my friendships and its unlimited joy, comfort and laughter they bring.
To this day, I am currently single. In avoiding heartbreak, I have never understood how it really feels. But instead, what I have built in the long run, is self-control as an individual woman, focused on developing my character and striving to bring my dreams and desires to fruition.
I cannot take a sugar coated view of love between man and wife so lightly, as I am sure difficulties will arise. Being with him for eternity is a commitment I hope to fulfil, in spite of my imperfections.
To think there are woman all around the world who have no freedom to choose when to marry or who to marry is unfathomable. We find cases in such countries as India, in fact I have just read the book ‘The war of woman and the brave ones who fight back’ by Sue Lloyd Morris, where it reveals children as young as 6 and 12 years old are given away to marry an older man. It is a sad reality for many girls. I can never take the freedom I have for granted, knowing so many suffer undeservingly.
I believe time is a precious thing. Growing up as young woman, I can’t deny the challenges I faced or escape the influences around me. Furthermore, what society leads me to think is ‘normal’ with regards to having a boyfriend, is not necessarily something I felt I had to conform to. For at the end of the day I believe my happiness is a result of the choices I choose to make. And my parents harnessed my belief system through the principles they laid out before me, at the time where I started to blossom into a vulnerable phase of my life.
One special tradition we had in my family was when my sisters and I turned 14 years old; we received a ‘purity ring’. This was where we pledged to keep our purity until the time we’ll share our lives with that person for eternity.
The Claddagh Ring is a traditional Irish ring – a heart, symbolising love, held lightly between two hands, representing friendship, with a crown above, signifying loyalty – when the heart is facing towards you, you have someone reserved or kept. When the heart is facing outwardly, it means you are searching for someone. We our Claddagh rings downwards.
In tough times, I would describe myself as a Ferrero Rocher. My heart is like a hard hazelnut, it symbolises my faith, my dignity. It is then encased with soft chocolate symbolising my character that fluidly flows. The shell is tough yet fragile. I believe it signifies my vulnerability. It can break eventually, dependent on the fear I experience, the insecurities that surface or the environments I am in.
Overall, in a time flourishing with social media apps such as Instagram and Facebook, we are all attentive to each other’s lives, our appearance and personalities. The younger generation are discovering a level of confidence perhaps many of us did not gain at least at such a speed. Nonetheless, the qualities that make us who we are, that makes us unique, and what we have to give to society, can be offered in various ways. Ultimately, we as women want to protect future generations by living righteously, nurturing our pride and living for the greater good of humanity.
One thing you might like to know about me is that I love writing poetry. I want to invigorate colourful thoughts, and a positive mindset through my poems. I am not entirely sure what I would like to be in the future but I know I want to be a woman of integrity.
My name is Miranda. It’s meaning encapsulates how I think every woman should feel; worthy of admiration.
‘The untethered soul’ by Michael A. Singer is a recommended read. Never have I in so long come across a book as rich in wisdom as this one. I want to personally thank the friend who gave this to me (you know who you are.)
Every chapter, expands my mind, to a degree whereby I am evaluating my own way of thinking in relation to the author, Michael A.Singer. He draws upon different areas of our lives, encouraging us to look into our selves as he takes us on a journey that begins with consciousness tethered to the ego. By the end of it, a gradual sense of inner freedom can be felt, with words pulling at your heart strings.
What I also like about this book is he uses a lot of imagery, allowing you to understand the concepts he is conveying. Plus the depth it carries is refreshing. In all honesty, it can be hard to understand sometimes and I find myself repeating some paragraphs, but this is all part of the experience. Burying my thoughts down to the core of my heart, I yearn to soak in all the beauty of his content, so I can apply this to daily living.
Happiness can be achieved if we cultivate the desire to free ourselves from habitual thoughts and emotions that limit our consciousness. The untethered soul is a beautiful book and has opened my eyes to a dimension of thought rather practical, in a sense he puts things into perspective, and somewhat makes you feel you are not on your own, in feeling fear and pain for example. In addressing them, he sensitively reveals how we can deal with them in life and the attitude we can embrace freely.
‘Do you want to be happy, or do you not want to be happy. It’s really simple. Once you make that choice, your path through life becomes totally clear.’ Michael A. Singer
‘When you have fear inside of you, the events of life invariably stimulate it. Like a rock thrown into water, the world with its continuous changes creates ripples in whatever is held with in you. There’s nothing wrong with that. Life creates situations that push you to your edges, all with the effect of removing what is blocked inside of you.’ Michael A. Singer
So, I personally will read it again and next time underline the soul grabbing lines, as well as take notes so I can be reminded of what I should try to pursue in thinking and feeling, so I can be at peace with myself and one with the world around me. Thank you Michael A. Singer. ‘The Untethered Soul’ is simply beautiful.
From the moment I turned 20 up till now, I have let the innocence running in my veins as I enter the world of young adulthood, be grounded by a sense of self discovery. As a flower takes time to bloom, we as human beings do so as well. In times of hardship, my petals fall and I lose sight of what I see around me. In a society where a constant battle to not compare with oneself to others is kind of impossible. Inevitably, I find myself being affected by the things I see people achieve, hungry to share that slice of sweet happiness. In the dips, I scramble in the pits of darkness to find a source of light to help me out. I feel as though throughout my 20s I have been in the face of my own fears as well as experienced pain I never felt I deserved to go through, and I started to see through the cracks. I could come to be less naive in my thinking toward life and try to challenge myself to embody what I feel is true to me, as I grounded myself as much as I could to a reality I perhaps did not really fathom to some degree. I guess perhaps my concepts of love were broken, and my ideals of love broken, when my relationship with him was broken. To this day, I look back and as hard as it is to erase these bitter memories, it is the cushions I fall back on that support me to bounce back on my feet. These cushions represent my friends. My family. The moments I have shared with them comes with an unlimited access to freeness of being and feeling accepted. Acceptance is so vital in sustaining relationships. Self-acceptance, well, thats on another level. It takes time to accept myself for who I am. In times where I felt I could no longer look at life in the eye and say I am in control with what I do is strained and I resort to playing the victim. Playing the victim is exhausting. It’s easy but thriving off a negative energy affects my inner self. My spirit. As one would not like to be subject to bullying. Self inflicting negative thoughts becomes a cycle I can not escape from. I find myself engraving these thoughts into my mind, in turn affecting my mood and self esteem. Dwelling on this has not helped me in the long run. In fact, I find myself stuck in a confused state. Not to say, one shouldn’t share their problems, because I did. I feel as though talking did help, the more I talked the more easier it became to realise a potential solution to a problem. It was healing in some ways. I feel the person(s) on the receiving end had great patience and an amazing listening ear for everything I said. For that, I am thankful for them (you know who you all are). Being in my 20s was thrilling because I came to be independent in my thinking. I came to immerse myself on another level of freedom to make choices for myself, I believed would help develop me. Develop my character. And skills. If I could meet my 20 year old self again, I would tell her to not be afraid about what people think of you. It was the year 2010 when my eldest sister Sarah passed away at the age of 25. I was 20 then. I always observed her, I found her intriguing as she took on a very busy and sociable lifestyle. She always encouraged me to invest in what I want to do in life. If I was to respond to this now, I would say I feel I have invested in relationships. Through all the opportunities , the challenges , the dead ends and the open doors, I’d like to think a certain kind of energy is driving me to live each day as it comes with a certain openness to expect the unexpected, learn something new or be surprised by the twinkling of spontaneous moments. Carried by a faith I have chosen to live by as well as a lifestyle I abide by, I aim to invest in making a small difference within a world you and I live in. Thank you 20s. Good bye and bring on the 30s.
I have two sisters who live abroad;one in Holland and one in Berlin and they have family (who I love so much) of their own. I occasionally visit them and when I do its always magical! I savour the sweet moments we share together, the sisterlyness of it all is so precious. I commend them greatly for their courage to live in another country and to this day forward they bloom in their own style and the limitless love between us grows stronger, even though we are afar. This poem I wrote highlights a bittersweet depiction of us being apart, and the technology which glues us together.. Its a blessing I will never take for granted for I cannot imagine how else we could communicate. I love you D and M.
Sister love
We share the same sky, a blue blanket spread across the day, the sun, it smiles, lighting up my memories with you both, time you were both here on the same soil, on the same ground.
When the night falls, silence protrudes, my starry eye thinks of you, as I look to the sky, the moon so white, its above me and above you too
The waters divide us, but we are not, connected we are, unbreakable bond. Longer we are apart, the rich togetherness
can be felt through the tunnels of WiFi, on our phone.
The blessed phone.
I formed a pool of my sorrows when you both left, over time they slowly evaporated as I came to accept, the path you took, your happiness matters a lot to me.
When I spend time with you, its heaven. I cherish every second of every day smiling, laughing, spilling words all over the place, being content in a space filled with grace.
You dab away my eyes filled with bitter tears and infuse the sweetness of your spirit entwining with mine, hold my hand and tell me i’ll be fine.
And breathe.
I pocket these memories invigorating my soul, an irreplaceable feeling of bliss, I feel whole. Lift our heads high, it’s time to go.
Miranda meanders 