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