Ideas are our greatest weapons: Breathtaking ideas

Last year was quite a year for me. And let me tell you, it wasn´t one of my favorites. Last year was a lesson, and nothing more than that. Without it I wouldn´t be standing here, talking proudly about this... Last year I had an eating disorder, and I have overcome it.

Sometimes I think about it and look for the reason that caused me my inner struggles, and always get to the same conclusion, society and ideas.

Ideas are in fact our greatest weapons. Aren´t ideas responsible for causing wars and revolutions? Of course ideas have also created the perfection ideal that is imposed by the beliefs society holds. Let me explain myself, for girls it is really important to be like a Barbie, perfect, pretty and thin. But we ignore the fact that Barbies don’t have a heart or a brain and have a fixed smile, don´t they? For sure all of us here have gone through struggles at times, and they all started from an idea we were imposed to follow.

These are not ideas that I would label as positive. They are the opposite, they destroy and kill instead of inspiring, constructing…They can kill people´s own beliefs, they are imposed truths. 

In this 21^st century we are brainwashed by advertisements, models, and an idea of “perfection” which we seek to obtain until we either destroy ourselves, or we realize there is no such thing as perfection. 

Lauren King once said:

“There are two kinds of perfect: the one you can never achieve, and the other, by just being yourself” 

Breathtaking, isn´t it? 

We struggle in being someone else trying to fix ourselves when, in reality, we are not broken. In order of achieving “perfect” we have to be ourselves and nothing else than that.

The secret is in being strong enough not to follow the crowd because in the end you will eventually get lost in it.

 How many times a day before taking a decision do we take the time to think about it? And when I say “think about it”, I really mean it. Now, how many times do we decide to skip the “thinking part” because everybody else is doing the same and follow the crowd just like sheep? What we don´t know is that this part we are avoiding could mean a lot more than what we believe.

My favorite poem, which perfectly explains this, is by Robert Frost and it is called “The road not taken”. 

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. “

What is the point in taking a road if you aren´t comfortable in it? The number of people that do something certainly does not contribute in making their decision right. We are not sheep. We were given minds to differentiate between what is right from what is wrong. We were given vocal chords, a mouth, and the power to speak so as to use it, not to repeat what others said, but what you want to say. We should make those parts of our body worth it and use them as you we are supposed to. 

I don’t want to be a sheep; I have bigger plans for me than that, so I decided to make a change and follow my own ideas.

When C. Columbus thought that the world was round, everybody accused him as wrong. Everybody believed he was insane, but who turned out to be right? The insane individual who went against the stream, following and committing to his ideas.

So then, how can you follow our ideas and making them great? Three words, 17 letters, and a challenge: believe in yourself. Just like Dr. Seuss says:

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

Let’s not live in a world where we claim not being equal, when all of us follow the same shepherd. Let’s be our own shepherds, but whilst teaching others what thinking for yourself, and following our ideas really is, because in the end of the road…ideas are our greatest weapons.

Ideas are incredibly powerful, without them nothing would be possible. However, ideas need actions to compliment them. Action is achieved by the ability of figuring out which ideas we want to follow. It sounds simple but it is not an easy task at all. We need to be determined in what, how, and when we want things to be for us.

A single idea can change your whole day. If we all take time to reflect on the ideas that come into our heads, and choose which ones to follow, we can start a process that may change the world. Today, right now. Starting this very moment.

*silence*

Breathtaking, isn’t it?

By Lucia Miri Echavarria

Note: This was another ESSARP competition, but this time it was public speaking. I won 1st place for this competition which was based on writing a speech and delivering it based on the topic given by the ESU (English Speaking Union) this year which was "Ideas are our greatest weapons". I used some stuff that I had written before in other essays since they had so much to do! Actually I wrote this speech one day before the competition, so I was quite in a hurry...Hope you enjoy it! I will upload my video delivering the speech at the competition soon! :)