By Gv. Hamna Marikkar
How remarkable is it that a mere sheet of paper and some methodical folding can become something so delightful? I folded my last paper crane and placed it beside my six others. This one was a striking shade of blue with intricate traditional artwork encompassing the sheet. The Japanese folk legend that folding a thousand paper cranes would make one wish come true striked me as fascinating. Aren’t we much like sheets of patterned origami paper?
We too have the ability to become something unique and brilliant, in all of our extraordinary differences, with just a little bit of folding. Our initiative to take the first step can transform us from colored embellished paper into a beautiful creation that we can admire on our shelf. Folding a thousand cranes grants us a wish, much like how practicing a speech a thousand times over can potentially make us one of the most influential speakers and leaders of all time.
Throughout my school life I’ve done a myriad of speeches; voluntarily, involuntarily, with my heart pounding, knees shaking, stuttering, and as a result of my growth, with a new profound sense of confidence and giving it my all. Toastmasters Club was the root that sprouted the stem, and the stem fostered into a blooming plant where I was finally a confident speaker. What I wish to convey is you cannot have the luscious orchid without planting that little seed, just like how you cannot have a paper crane without pragmatically folding that piece of paper. You cannot be an outspoken leader without taking that first step, that first seed, to do your first speech. The first speech is always imperfect, always terrifying, but it’s an essential step to get to where you are now. As confident as I am, I always know there’s room to improve, which is why joining Gavel will give me the soil I need to flourish as an assertive member of today’s and tomorrow’s society, and the paper I need to fold a thousand origami cranes.
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