An Ice-cream Life

Motivational speaker Jean Demetry was invited to speak at the graduating class of 2020, at the university that turned down his application twenty years ago. He agrees to do the speech for free if the school board allowed him to choose the location.

They agreed, thinking about the money they would be saving. He chooses their theatre.

The school demanded to know why.

“Well,” he said. “This is a Performing Arts College, after graduation, their lives will be on stage. Plus, I will need the use of your Concession Stand.”

The school board liked the idea, as Jefferson Theatre has just been renovated and could hold more than 2500 people. The students were excited about the location and the speaker.

Jean entertains them with shorts skits to get them motivated and start the pot boiling. ‘Good,’ he said to himself.

He invites four students from the audience, two males, and two females. He then lines them up on stage in boy-girl-boy-girl. They smile in anticipation.

“What are your names?” he asks.

Joseph was the first. Maxine was second. Ian was third and Sara was fourth.

“Ready Andy,” he calls out.

A man in white appears from behind the stage with a plastic bucket of ice-cream and a scoop. The audience held their breath.

“Ok ladies and gentlemen, hold out the hand you use, right or left.”

Confusion spells out on their faces, but they obeyed.

Andy went down the line putting a scoop of ice cream in the palm of three of the four hands. Sara stared in shock as Andy turns away without putting in ice-cream in her hand.

“Hey,” she called out, “What about me?”

He kept ongoing. The audience waits for the ball to drop.

She stares in confusion, then shock, then anger, then walks off the stage and out of the theatre.

Joseph held the ice-cream in his hand watching it melt. Maxine ate hers. Ian ran out of the theatre holding the scoop of ice-cream with both hands.

The audience gasps.

Seconds later Ian returned with a container with his ice-cream. Sara followed him with a big container of ice-cream.

Jean waited until Joseph’s ice-cream melted, then give him sheets of paper towel to clean up.

“That scoop of ice-cream was your life,” he said as the audience gasp.

“Joseph, you stood by and watched your life dissolved and melted. You did nothing to try and preserve it or make it last. Maxine, you ate your life. Ian, you fight to save your life. A fighting spirit will live longer and never gives up.

But Sara outdid all of you. She didn’t wait for life to give her anything. She went out there and get what she wants. She owns success,” he said as the audience gasp.

Life is a test, and it will test your ability to think quickly on your feet. E.g., the young man who allowed the ice cream to melt in his hand. It will test your ability to utilize common sense, e.g., the young lady that ate her ice-cream. It will test your ability to preserve your life, e.g., The young man who got the container to put his ice-cream in. The young lady that went out and got her own ice cream, didn’t wait on life to test her. She tests life.

If you wait for life, life will make all your decisions for you. Nobody wants that.”

The audience ruptured in applause.

Minutes later when the audience was quiet, a young lady asks, “How did you know that they were going to do what they did?”

Jean smiles and said, “I didn’t, but I do know that life tests us every day, and if you are unprepared, failure will follow. Two were unprepared and two weren’t. Life challenges won’t knock before it enters. It won’t call to let you know it’s coming. It won’t send you a text, or an email. It will just show up, anytime, anywhere. As young minds ready to fight the world, you won’t win if you are unprepared for the challenges our world throw at you. And there will be many.”

Life is a test, and we are tested every day!

Thank you for reading this piece. I hoped you enjoyed it.