Last Wednesday Oratory had the honor of listening to a speech given by Shaun Derik. When he first came onto the stage he showed us his trademark enthusiasm and energy with a clapping exercise. He came to tell us about the power of practicing to be something better and showing confidence. He first pulled up a junior and had him dance for a few seconds to see if he had enough confidence. He then told us the story about how he didn’t learn like all of his friends and felt that he was stupid because how friends and teachers would talk to him.

During recess, he would go to the school’s music room and practice playing the piano. One day a teacher found him in the room alone and learned that he could learn to play through listening and the teacher called him a genius, something no one else had called him before. He told us that he learned one song pretty good and then played it decently. He told us that his mom asked him do you want to be okay or do you want to be good. He played the song slightly better. His mom asked if he wanted to be good or if he wanted to be great. He then played the song even better. He told us that his mom asked him one last question, ‘Do you want to be great or do you want to be amazing?’ After that, he played the song perfectly.

Then he brought up three students and gave them one of them a notepad. He asked some students in the audience what they liked. After compiling a list of about ten things the three students took turns singing different things on the list. Some were teachers like Mr. Gaertner and Mr. Seebode. Others were Ariana Grande and memes. The whole crowd was laughing as they heard their favorite things get announced.

He told us a story about how when he was in school his mom made him and his friend to do their homework at the friend’s house with their smart and tall friend. He then asked who are the tallest kid in the school was and when he saw Freshman Tommy Conniff his jaw dropped. When he got back to his story he told us a story about when the three of them got in trouble for playing video games instead of doing their homework one day when their mom was doing errands. This told us the importance of working hard.

For his final act, he pulled up four students and told them that they all had to do different dances for thirty seconds while he was playing a song. Each student took a turn doing their favorite dances and the whole student body got up and cheered as he recorded a video that he gets of each school he visits. We all enjoyed his speech and hope he can come back again.