The entire auditorium fell silent, with only Lynch’s voice echoing.
"Before , our teachers’ representative and graduating students’ representative have already spoken, sharing their experiences, accumulated wisdom, and insights from their life’s journey with us."
"I appreciate the help from these teachers and the seniors, so let talk about sothing different, such as youth."
"You’ve all seen it, I don’t have a speech draft!" He waved his hands again, traced back and forth on the lectern’s surface, no paper fluttered out, proving he wasn’t lying.
He placed his hands on the edges of the lectern, slightly tilted his head, "In fact, a second before standing here, at the mont I stood up from my seat, I didn’t know what I wanted to say..." He pointed at his seat based on his feeling without looking.
"But when I stood here, looking at our host lady..." He smiled at the host standing beside him who was about to cry, "I’ve ntioned her three tis in such a short mont, am I bullying her?"
The auditorium was filled with light laughter, and the atmosphere turned from serious to sowhat joyful. He waved his hand, "Alright, I’m not bullying her, but I have to ntion her because she reminded to bring my speech draft."
"From when do we start getting accustod to this...", he frowned, raised his hand, and tapped his forehead, "...’norm’, and even get shackled by this ’norm’?"
"Elders always use their rich life experiences to tell us ’you should do this, kid’, ’you should do that, kid’..." He added a curl to the end of the word ’kid’, making it sound sowhat odd and amusing.
"We’re always being advised by various people’s life experiences, societal experiences, and the passage of others’ years, to the extent that soone had to remind I needed a speech draft..."
"If we keep following these things, then what about our own lives?"
"Will it also turn into another kind of life that we actually don’t want, soone else’s life, under such advice and norms?"
"Perhaps this kind of life isn’t wrong, classmates, because it’s the most correct path others have explored for us with their years, but please consider, is this the life we want?"
His voice beca full of piercing montum, tearing sothing apart, "The norms we receive from others that constrain our lives aren’t the lives we want; maybe we’ll appreciate it later, but at least not now."
"This is what I want to share with you all today, youth!"
"Youth isn’t just a label for the age we’re currently at but should be a type of attitude we have towards life!"
"Trying, adventuring, getting hurt, soaring, being bold, confronting our unknown and unfamiliar life paths with perseverance, waving our fists to crush all obstacles blocking our road to happiness, forging ahead in the road of life!"
"This is the attitude we young people should have, this is the attitude of youth!"
He swung his fist forcefully, saying several sentences almost continuously, giving people a feeling of suffocation but also exhilaration.
His voice slowed down a bit, "Perhaps...we’ll get hurt, perhaps the pains we endure are those the elders experienced, what they warned us about, pains we could avoid."
"But it doesn’t matter, classmates, don’t fear pain because only by experiencing the pain of scars with our own selves will we rember it and feel proud for overcoming pain and scars!"
"This is the life we want, this is our own life!"
"A free youth shouldn’t be swayed by others..."
Compared to the rigid speeches of the previous two speakers, Lynch’s speech was brimming with sothing special—rebellion, self-willed, or might as well say reckless. He indirectly criticized the speeches of the previous two speakers.
All their encouragent, guidance, and warnings turned into "norms" interfering with others’ lives, triggering recognition and resonance among the students.
In fact, most of the people here possess almost the sa life; others only see their carefree existence from birth but not the cold white behind it.
Ever since they beca sensible, they are actually more like a dog than a person.
Their parents would punish them for ’you shouldn’t do this’ and reward them for following their parents’ orders on what they ’should’ do.
Their life is like a ticulously trained dog’s life, with chanical reactions on what can and can’t be done already prescribed. They don’t need to know why so things can be done while others can’t; this is the first lesson the world gives them.
They don’t have the right to explore the world; though they’re richer than their peers envying them outside the wall, they are not free.
Every norm feels like a rope tightly binding them, making them unable to breathe; even when to go to school and which school to attend is an arranged life.
They probably hear "it’s all for you" more than "I respect your choice."
A group of pitiable people, pitiable people without youth.
Yet precisely this group resonates with Lynch’s impromptu speech; they crave freedom, a genuine, reckless youth—the kind those kids outside the walls can indulge for a quarter of their youth.
Although they may not be wealthy, their spirit is free!
Returning to his seat, people around him praised him; even the teacher representative and graduating class representative who were hinted at attempting to "norm" the freshn’s lives gave his speech high praise.
Lynch enthusiastically mingled with them, being courteous, not ignoring anyone; everything was so perfect.
The mber of Parliant’s speech was very brief because a person of such level couldn’t possibly deliver a long speech here. As he finished his last word and packed up his speech draft, the students gave a warm applause.
The welcoming ceremony was basically nearing its end at this point, leaving only so trivial tasks.
Surprisingly, the mber of Parliant deliberately walked over to Lynch and shook his hand, "Mr. Lynch, didn’t expect to see you here, you are..." He looked curiously at Lynch’s school uniform.
Lynch didn’t hide, "I just enrolled, freshman."
The mber of Parliant quickly understood, as he was also a mber of the Saint Harmony Association, "Your choice is very wise; this is a good school." He said while pulling out a business card and giving it to Lynch, "I won’t disturb you, feel free to contact when you have ti, we can chat."
After saying this, they shook hands, and the mber of Parliant quickly departed.
Watching his departing figure, Lynch glanced at the business card in his hand. It was from a legislator in the House of Representatives, but he held titles in two committee mberships, probably related to so business affairs, might co in handy later.
Putting the business card away, Anna finally ca over, knowing she had to give Lynch so space.
"You told earlier your speech’s core was ’ideals’, but now it’s turned into ’youth’." The girl sowhat sulkily complained, making one’s scalp tingle.
Lynch blinked, "I said that every second you see , I’m a new , so what I say doesn’t depend on the previous but the at the second when things happen, whatever I feel like saying."
"So..plicated." Anna held her forehead, "I always feel like you’re brushing off."
"Brushing off?"
"How could it be?!"
He smiled, of course it was brushing off. Anna’s attitude shifted too fast, not just ninety degrees, more like a hundred and eighty degrees, making him wary, who knows what this girl is up to.
But no matter what she’s up to, being prepared is absolutely never a problem.
"How do you think I did?" Lynch asked a very ordinary question, actually not caring much.
Indeed, what he said before was not what he wanted to say by this second, yet under those circumstances, speaking on those topics seed more appropriate.
Besides making people initially feel a bit excited and inspired, these words wouldn’t last long. If soone here really tried to rebel and succeeded, then they wouldn’t be here.
Freedom, or recklessness, is a dream that most people here can imagine but never reach. When they wake from the dream, reality returns.
They dare not truly face an uncertain life, because everything they have now is based on wealth.
If they lost this, they’d beco nothing; by that ti, not to ntion "happiness gained through freedom", they wouldn’t even have a place to shelter from the elents.
So after the excitent, life will go on as usual, but that doesn’t an Lynch’s words are useless; for those who’ve already gained freedom, those words still hold inspirational value.
For instance, those who can’t afford to go to school and start working right after graduating high school, or students in ordinary colleges, freedom definitely holds more value than "norms", and this is also the mainstream ideology of the Federation—freedom transcends life.
Those... the lower levels of society strive desperately for freedom, while Lynch and the people here continue to move further along the path of "norms."
Anna clearly understood this too; every word that jumped out of Lynch’s mouth made her feel a powerful inspiring force filling her body, yet after the speech when she pondered...tsk.
"It was excellent!", the girl involuntarily praised.
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