A speech I would like advice on.

[Mute]

In a few days, I have to give a speech and in it I have to list one significant or unusual personal experience. This is what I have written for a general idea of what I'm going to write. This is not a finished version of my speech.

"About six years ago. I had an unusual experience that played a significant role into making me who I am today. During this time period, I would spend virtually all of my time walking and that was usually eight to ten hours a day. I would walk ten to twenty miles in a day and I would do this every single day.

I had a beautiful area I would walk in that came just down to the Potomac River and then up through a forest. At this time period, I made a choice and one I felt very committed to. I decided to go three days without food or water and I decided to do this while maintaining my regular walking. Of course the thought had never occurred to me that I could potentially die from exerting myself while depriving myself of all food and water. I had seen people on tv before that had been in car crashes with broken bones and no one finding them for up to seven days and still surviving. Of course they were barely alive when they found them and placed on life support but the thought never entered my mind that going three days without food or water would be of any consequence.

The first two days weren't so hard. I managed to do my walking just fine. The third day was another story. I did manage to do my walking but I felt absolutely terrible. You can tell your insides feel dried out. As I walked, I knew something was obviously seriously wrong. I remember watching the clock on the microwave for the remaining three hours before I would let myself eat something. Time seemed to slow down. Every minute seemed like ten. It was very difficult to concentrate and the only thought that seemed to enter my mind was food. I actually felt like I was going to die and I had the power to stop that at any time but I didn't. I didn't give in no matter how badly I yearned for it. It gives you a sense of pride and satisfaction to know you did this. I knew there was nothing I couldn't do. I learned that I'm not a quitter, even if there is a potential risk to myself. If I set my mind to something, I'm either going to do it or die trying and in this case I almost did.

After this was done, I had a pain in my chest for over an entire year. Eventually that pain did go away and I fully recovered. So going without food and water for extended periods of time is not something I'd recommend, however I was able to live from it and it was a growing experience for me.

Because of having gone through this, I have reason to believe that a starving person does not concern themselves with family, past regrets or how dire their situation may be. I believe until the last second they are still alive, there is only one thought on their mind and that is of course food."

Now here is the question. What would be your initial impression from hearing this in a speech? Would you think anything strange or odd about a person who said this? I've asked six people for their feed back on this and two said they would find it interesting, two said they wouldn't think anything strange of it and two said they may think the person was either a religious nut or going through an emotional or traumatic event in their life.

I never list the actual reason for why I chose to do this. So what would your initial impression be from hearing a person list this event as an unusual experience they went through and something significant to them?

Edited January 20, 2011 by Mute

[Guest]

Honestly:

The first thing that came to my head while reading your post is Forrest Gump.

The second thing that came to my head is Super-size me.

The last thing that came to my head is... you are a great candidate for bulimia/anorexia. You have the tendency to feel satisfaction for having the power to control your hunger.

[NeuroTypical]

So what would your initial impression be from hearing a person list this event as an unusual experience they went through and something significant to them?

My first impression would be a movie quote. Roughly paraphrased: "The next time you have a story, try to have a point! A punchline! A reason for telling the story. It makes things that much more interesting for the listener!"

"For pete's sake don't do this, but I did it and I'm glad I did and it made me stronger" might be an invitation for a lawsuit, or might provoke censoring before you can present the speech. I'm worried some impressionable kid might listen, and go and die of exposure somewhere. Because another impact of no food/water, can be loss of good judgement.

Proper audience and a better point - sure.

[FunkyTown]

Why on earth would you go without water? o.O

I'm curious as to what the logical reason for this would be. Specifically: What you were thinking that led to not drinking anything for three days?

[Gwen]

i'm sure the story has a clearer point in context with the rest of the speech.

as far as my assumptions about the person telling the story i would be curious about "the rest of the story" and assume something was emotionally wrong at the time. some kind of depression or something, that kind of fixation on walking and nothing else doesn't seem "normal". also the decision to exclude water from the fast isn't logically sound. the failure to see the whole picture is a sign something isn't right. would i think you were "bad" or "crazy" or "stupid"? no.

i've been in my own dark places. the decisions aren't sound and i wouldn't want my whole life or character to be judged based on that time, i won't do it to someone else. i would hope that you learned some greater lessons from it so as to not attempt it again.

[rameumptom]

Years ago, I had a friend who did a survival course at BYU ever summer. One year, a young woman went on the tough trip with them. She lasted one day, and died. What they later found out was she had been on a strict diet for several weeks. She had not provided herself enough potassium, and so died from it. The heavy sweating on the trip only quickened her death, as she sweated out the last of the potassium in her body. I'm guessing that was possibly your problem, as well. You could have killed yourself, or caused serious damage to internal organs. As it is, your heart may not hurt now, but such damage as you caused could come back to haunt you in later years.

For my friend, he now knows that just giving her a banana would have saved her life. But he didn't know then what he knows now. Her lack of judgment in first doing a dangerous diet and then going on an extreme survival trip was like the perfect storm. It killed her, and no one knew how to help her - even though the solution was very simple: one banana.

[Mute]

The reason I did this was because I was fasting. I believed in God back then and I felt fasting longer would show my commitment. Walking was simply something I didn't want to give up during these three days because I love it so much. I didn't want to stop walking in order to fast. It was just something I decided to do at the same time.

I don't plan to give them the reason for why I did this. The actual reason is some what embarrassing for me. I am proud of the event but not of my reason for doing it. My reasons for doing it isn't significant to me or unusual. I want people to focus on the deed and what I learned from doing it. Not on the reasons for why.

Different people fast differently. Some people fast by only eating bread and water. Some people go without food and water for 24 hours. I chose to do it a little longer and I would simply like to avoid having someone tell me their opinion of the "correct" way to fast. I would also like to avoid anyone thinking I'm some extreme religious person or asking me about my religious beliefs at all. I did what I did because it was something I felt very strongly about and that is all. I do not like lying to people even to avoid something hard about myself. So I thought I'd ask here to get a general idea of what some of you may think from hearing this speech.

Thankfully, the audience is not allowed to ask questions during the actual event but after we are all done and ready to go, I may face questions about it. If that is the case, I'll have to think of something to avoid the question without lying.

The audience are mainly people in their early 20s. I was actually hoping many of you wouldn't think much negative from it.

[Mute]

i'm sure the story has a clearer point in context with the rest of the speech.

as far as my assumptions about the person telling the story i would be curious about "the rest of the story" and assume something was emotionally wrong at the time. some kind of depression or something, that kind of fixation on walking and nothing else doesn't seem "normal". also the decision to exclude water from the fast isn't logically sound. the failure to see the whole picture is a sign something isn't right. would i think you were "bad" or "crazy" or "stupid"? no.

i've been in my own dark places. the decisions aren't sound and i wouldn't want my whole life or character to be judged based on that time, i won't do it to someone else. i would hope that you learned some greater lessons from it so as to not attempt it again.

That's true that going for such long walks isn't normal among most people but it is supposed to be unusual. Then again, is it any less normal than say someone spending hours on end chatting online, playing video games online, hiking the Appalachian trail for six months, text messaging to their friends non stop or some other hobby they spend most of their time on?

Do you yourself not go without food and water when fasting? All LDS go without food and water when fasting, which is what I was at the time.

Edited January 21, 2011 by Mute

[Gwen]

Do you yourself not go without food and water when fasting? All LDS go without food and water when fasting, which is what I was at the time.

but a fast without food or water is a 2 meal fast (no more than 24 hours). the church also teaches to consider health, those with medical conditions that prevent fasting, take medications, pregnant, nursing, etc are told not to physically fast. we are encouraged to not fast when going to the temple so that we can have our full capacity when doing physical labors. if one desires an extended fast (which is not required as part of the church fasting observance) it is encouraged that you have water. so even the most devout lds, that have been a member long enough to have lessons on fasting would probably not have attempted what you did (for religious reasons).

[rameumptom]

I don't think there's anything wrong with a 3 day fast. I've learned many spiritual things in doing 3 day fasts before. That said, I would ensure I planned my day around such fasts so as not to injure myself (like a huge walk).

[Mute]

I don't think there's anything wrong with a 3 day fast. I've learned many spiritual things in doing 3 day fasts before. That said, I would ensure I planned my day around such fasts so as not to injure myself (like a huge walk).

You've gone three days without food or water multiple times? Would you care to elaborate? I know it was the hardest thing I ever did and it caused me a lot of physical pain. Once was enough to convince me to not do it again. I just can't imagine why you would do this more than once. I'm assuming you weren't exerting yourself too much though right? Perhaps it wouldn't have caused me such pain if I didn't do that. I may never know.

[Mute]

The speech went well. I made quite a few friends from it as well so that makes me happy. I heard a lot of other interesting talks while I was there and I look forward to our future speeches. I'll be talking about a man who has been a personal inspiration for me and thousands of others in my next speech. The person I'm talking about is named Joseph William Kittinger. He is most commonly known for his participation in project excelsior for longest free fall in the world.