Speech

I am in the middle of watching the Obama back-to-school speech, I wanted to write as I was watching so the I could catch the little details in his speech.

Before Obama even came out on stage, the scene is set. There are rows and rows of students in the background of all ethnicities, the entire place is decorated blue (symbolizing leadership I believe?), and a student opens the entire speech.

I was a little surprised that Obama came out saying "Heeeey!" it caught me off guard a bit. I kind of felt like I was at a concert, but I think his point was to bring himself down to a more informal state. This is because his audience here is students, who would better understand someone who spoke like them, or rather us. So I understand his reason behind an introduction like this, but it still caught me off guard...pleasantly I might add.

At the very beginning, he sets the stage by saying that he does not want to be just another adult standing before us kids, talking to us as minority. By this, he gives us a feeling of having a larger purpose, which personally makes me want to listen to him more because I feel like he is not about to just tell me that I have to work harder or stop acting like a child. Rather I'm ready for him to speak to me as if I am an adult and I have responsibilities that will actually matter.

He used the metaphor, "sometimes you need to color outside of the lines." I thought this was really cute, and a little inspiring because everybody can relate to this idea and paint a picture in their mind.

He doesn't have any visuals, but he paints a lot of pictures by using personal examples. Personally I would say make the speech a little shorter, because I am getting really bored and tuning out a little bit, but summing it up, it's a good speech. He's his hands well and seems very comfortable at giving speeches which is very helpful in watching him and feeling comfortable listening.

He doesn't say anything significantly powerful by using repetition or anything, he is simply stating the facts. It is effective,but a little lecture-ish and to be honest, kind of boring. If I had a choice, I would turn it off right now.

His ending was good and straight to the point which I liked. The last thing I want to say before I finish up is that I definitely noticed that every single person in the background was either African American or Indian, except for one boy in the front left corner. I have a feeling that they did this on purpose too to make it seem like America is very ethnically accepting and diverse. Which I guess is true to a point, but I found it a little bit obnoxious.

That is all I have to say :)