| Here's the written version that I was originally going to read off from, but of course, nothing ever goes as planned:
Ladies, and gentlemen, your eminences, your
excellencies, triple threat, fems and Ms Sora Kim.
I am here today to talk to you about some
important matter and something that is dear to my heart. No, I’m not referring to Sora Kim, I’m here
to talk about following your heart. You
may wonder why I would be giving a speech during a birthday dinner and why I
would ask for a series of speeches to be given here tonight. And I should add and note that speech giving
has been a grand tradition in Triple Threat for decades and has been passed
down for generations. The speech giver
or bearer would be named the "Threatmaster" and be the one privileged
with giving the speech to start off the night and also buying the first round
of drinks. But in respect to speech
giving, I feel imparting knowledge, dispensing experience into wisdom,
inspiring and invigorating the individual and setting the tone for the night
through a speech or a toast is as important or more important than the occasion
itself. So, I shall try humbly and give
my best, as Plato once said, to "enchant the soul by discourse".
Follow Your Heart. We've heard this saying
countless times, written into movies, littered into songs, counted numerous
times in speeches but its meaning of it is never look upon or dissected into
detail. Before the statement
"follow your heart" can be expounded, I believe a correlation of the
word "heart" must be defined.
Heart is without doubt the wellspring of creativity that feeds the soul
but there is also another definition we can associate with it. The most interchangeable and prominent
translation of the word heart is undeniably the word "love". One location we associate with Love is the
heart and to follow your heart also means to follow your love. Love is not an easy feeling to put into
words. Nor is loyalty, trust, joy,
friendship or triple threat. Love, it is
inexplicable and can be best put into examples and feelings of passion, a sense
of belonging, or a sense of feeling purpose and importance to other people.
Following your heart is not about being reckless, making excuses to be
impulsive or living in the moment, or being brash. It is about having a quality of imagination,
a predominance of courage over timidity, and an appetite for adventure over the
love of ease.
In an age of satisfaction and complacency, it
becomes a much more important concept as impediments in our lives show up such
as career changes, living situations, relationships failing or ending, going
through the daily drudgeries and routines, or having your 26th birthday. Following your heart is not about being
comfortable and not about getting approval.
It's about laying everything on the line, taking the next step in your career
perhaps, moving into a new city or country,
retrying and dusting off from a failed business venture or maybe following that
one girl into Korea.
It's about being relentless in achieving all your dreams and fantasies and eliminating
the possibilities of "what ifs".
It's about finding and living your life's passion. It's about living your life completely and
living it intensely.
Because in the world of increased complexities,
empowered individuals, seemingly infinite nuances, where everything is
enigmatic and amorphic, you will need the vision of clarity and that clarity is
brought to you by following your heart.
Follow your heart, listen to your love, cherish
your family and your friends, trust in God and maintain to be a person of
integrity and respect, for this is what is real and what is essential. I thank you all for attending tonight. 
At J-Lounge
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