Laura Noordhof (13) zit in de tweede gymnasiumklas van het Gomarus College. Haar klas deed mee aan de Junior Speaking Contest, een jaarlijkse wedstrijd waarin middelbare scholieren een Engelstalige speech schrijven. Dit jaar is het thema ‘Imagine that…’. Laura stelde zich het perfecte leven voor.

We always want more and more, but is that really what makes us happy?

 Today I will be discussing... a perfect life.

I want to begin with the question: when is life perfect, and then I'll move on to the second question: would we be aware of our perfect life when it was perfect? And finally, we will be looking at how we can make our life as perfect as possible.

First, let's begin with... when is life perfect?

Is it perfect when you have a lot of money? When you have a big house with a swimming pool? Always brought to school by car? When you have high marks? Or would there be no school anymore when life was perfect? Would it be perfect when it was never too hot and never too cold? When you are always the winner? Or are there no differences between winners and losers anymore?

Maybe one of these things would be a part of your perfect life. But would you really be satisfied by this, or do you still want more?

However, if we had a perfect life, no matter how...

Then a significant puzzle is... would we be aware of our perfect life when it was perfect?

 I always say: “Without downs no ups”. When I have a bad day, I try to think: “there will be a good day soon”. Would you be aware of all the good days if there were only good days? I think you need a bad day to enjoy more of your good days. You can have a Lamborghini, a villa, jacuzzi, and a lot of cash, but for example when you’re ill you want to get better. You don’t need all that stuff! You just want to enjoy again!

That reminds me... of the corona pandemic…

Before corona we did everything without really thinking about how special it was. We could go to the cinema whenever we wanted to, we could go to a restaurant without a QR code, we could have parties. But then the lockdown came. And we were shocked, all those things weren’t possible anymore. Later when they were possible again, I enjoyed them even more than before.

Let’s go back to the perfect life…

I think the perfect life is in heaven, but we aren’t in heaven yet. And that brings me to my last point: how can we make our life as perfect as possible in this world? You can make this your goal. Someone once said: “I want a life where I can live my life, where I can use everything I have in me, where I can help others, and where I am healthy.”

I think this is how you can make the best of your life.

In the first part of this speech, we've covered... what a perfect life would look like. Then we had a look at the question if we would realise that our life was perfect. And at last, we discussed how we can make our lives as perfect as possible.

Finally, I want to say...

 Be thankful for everything you get because we are rich people in this world. We have a home, a bed, we have a lot of water and even more. So be grateful for everything you get.