At the Teen Awards Ceremony, Ashton Kutcher made a speech that inspired a lot of people. After he introduced himself and greeted people, he said that there are three important things in life. The first thing was opportunity, the second thing was being sexy, and the third thing was living life. Ashton said that opportunity is given when we work hard. He told the audience about the jobs that he had when he was growing up. He had jobs like washing dishes, sweeping up dust in factories, and even working in a grocery store. He said that opportunities look a lot like hard work. He taught me that nothing is free in life. Secondly, he talked about being sexy. He said that the sexiest thing in the entire world is being smart, being thoughtful, and being generous. During the speech, he yelled out “ Everything else besides being smart, generous, and thoughtful is just crap --that everybody tries to sell you to make you feel less, so don’t buy it!” Lastly, he said the third thing was about something he learned while making a movie about Steve Jobs. He told the audience what Steve Jobs said. “When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way that it is, and your life is to live inside that world. Maybe get an education, get a job, save money, and have a family. But life can be a lot broader than that when you realize one simple thing. And that is that everything around us that we call life is made up by people that are no smarter than you!” Ashton pointed out that we should build a life, not live one.

Ashton was truthful and serious in his speech, and I thought he really meant what he was saying. I learned that in order to gain something we have to work for it. Opportunity is given when we strive. The second idea was to be sexy. We only need three things in life, and it was to be smart, be thoughtful, and be generous. Everything else is garbage, now I understand that we should not be discouraged by other people affecting us. Now I realized that we have to be book smart and also have applicable knowledge about the world. Lastly, I understood that we should not be followers. We should not just live a life, we should build one. I think that means to show leadership and have inventive minds. From Ashton’s speech, I was able gain courage and knowledge about the world.

Here's the speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuBSRC1zpHw