For the fifth time, honorary patronage of the competition was provided by the Council for the Polish Language at the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Mayor of Bolesławiec; for the sixth time, by the Lower Silesian Superintendent of Education. The competition was intended for sixth-grade students at primary schools and for lower-secondary school students.
The participants’ task was to deliver their own text concerning the world around them: the positive and negative aspects of reality, and to talk about what moves and delights them, makes life beautiful, outrages, irritates or frightens them.
The subjects of the speeches were highly varied. The young speakers talked about respect, admiration for their parents, online hate, failure to follow spelling rules when communicating through internet messengers, passions, plans for the future, honesty with themselves and others, desires and dreams, the complexity of personality, volunteering, and the location of the Bolesławiec bypass.
After listening to the participants’ speeches, the jury, composed of Prof. Andrzej Markowski (chairman of the Council for the Polish Language at the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences), Barbara Parzymies (an inspector from the Education Office in Wrocław), Jerzy Zieliński (Secretary of the City of Bolesławiec), and Magdalena Kotwica (the competition’s winner in the 2014/2015 school year), awarded the best speakers in both age groups and granted the title of Lower Silesian Demosthenes “Master of Polish Speech”.
Sixth-grade primary school students and first-year lower-secondary students
- First place: not awarded
- Second place: Milena Bochenek (Municipal Lower-Secondary School No. 3 in Bolesławiec) and Jasmina Skorupka (Municipal Lower-Secondary School No. 2 in Bolesławiec)
- Third place: Weronika Zdunek (Municipal Lower-Secondary School No. 2 in Bolesławiec)
Lower-secondary schools
- First place: Julia Kalinowska (Oxpress Public Lower-Secondary School in Bolesławiec)
- Second place: Aleksandra Kunecka (Oxpress Public Lower-Secondary School in Bolesławiec) and Julia Pranić (Municipal Lower-Secondary School No. 4 in Bolesławiec)
- Third place: Karolina Mech (Municipal Lower-Secondary School No. 2 in Bolesławiec) and Adrianna Zeszutek (Municipal Lower-Secondary School No. 2 in Bolesławiec)
Julia’s speech
Dear listeners... My friend once said that each of us is a star. But I do not agree. I believe that we are constellations—full of chaotic thoughts, wild feelings and character traits that quarrel with one another. Every person has a unique shape that makes them exceptional and so different from the rest. Sometimes, however, blinded by the light, we fail to notice other things.When we see a female friend laughing often, we automatically assume that she is happy. We do not accept that it may be otherwise. That she may put on a mask every morning so that no one notices how badly she is doing. Looking at an agitated acquaintance, we may think that they are simply nervous. But it may turn out that they have their reasons, reaching very deep.
All our lives, we assume various things. We choose not to see what is hidden. We prefer to think that people are the way they are, forgetting that something shaped them. We prefer to hear laughter rather than the sobbing coming from it.
It is funny, even paradoxical, that each of us has secrets and problems. In fact, we are all pretending. Every day. So why do we ignore others?
When viewed from the side, one might think that I am a star shining for others, caring for people. Yes, I worry about others more than I worry about myself. But that does not mean that I do not have problems either. [...]If someone wanted to, they could notice it. If I wanted to, I could talk about it more often. But it is easier to pretend or ignore it, right? I am not the only one who does this. Each of us, every one of you, does it.
And that is precisely why I believe that being a star is not enough. We are too complicated for that. We are constellations, and every single element makes us who we are. And it is beautiful in a way—that even though one part of us dies from time to time, we continue to shine.