[This post is a transcript of a Toastmaster’s Icebreaker speech I gave Wednesday, November 10, 2010. If you’re a reader, scroll down. If you’re a listener, press play. If you like sing alongs, press play and then scroll down. If you’re about curious what I look like when I give speeches, well, that’s taken care of too. I’ve found togas command respect.]

My Life According to Water by jshirk

Water is life’s mater and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.
– Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Albert and I are on the same page. I think water is incredibly important. More than just being the precursor to the “ice” of an ice breaker, water is life. I’ve identified three key dimensions in my life that revolve around water. Drinking water helps me complete my daily activities. Living water, my faith in God that guides me, and charity: water, an organization that has inspired me to help people gain access to clean water on the other side of the globe.

I drink water often enough that I have to go to the bathroom constantly. No seriously, there’s a good chance I’d wet myself if I had class for more than two hours in a row.

I love water. I consume upwards of a gallon of the stuff every single day. I enjoy running and working out, and it’s essential to be hydrated if I want to participate in those activities without passing out.

Water is a thread that “runs” through my day. I wake up and drink a cold glass of water. I go to the gym and bring my infamous Yellowstone Park water bottle that my mom snagged for me on a trip out west.

[Speaking of that bottle, I take it with me everywhere, and it’s a miracle I haven’t lost it. In fact, it’s been left in a restaurant in Slovenia, in more classrooms than I can count, and in darn near every single Athens coffee shop. I’ve tried my best to lose the thing, but it’s like a boomerang–I throw it around and it comes right back.]

But alas, I digress. Back to water. As I go through my day, I’m always drinking water. It keeps me refreshed, keeps me focused, and keeps me going. And what’s convenient about water in the United States is that it’s free. We’ll, someone somewhere along the way is paying for the water that magically comes out of the shiny silver pipes we toss our bottles under, but unless we’re in our own homes, it’s not our bill to pay.

Earlier I mentioned I left my water bottle in a restaurant in Slovenia. I went to that little gem of a country in Eastern Europe this past summer on a missions trip with Campus Crusade for Christ. Which brings me to the second part of water in my life: Living Water.

I consider myself a follower of Jesus Christ, who claimed to be the Son of God who died for the sins of humans and rose again to conquer death. He is also known as the “Living Water.”

This might seem a bit crazy and forward to you, and it did to me too, but early in my college career I found the party lifestyle unfulfilling. I found that booze was no substitute for the eternal spring of life and that my actions were acts of rebellion against God.

During my sophomore year, I truly placed my faith in God through a personal relationship with Jesus.

It’s been far and away the best decision I’ve ever made.

Each day I know that I serve a God that loves me and gives me life through the truth of the living water. I could spend the rest of this speech talking about my faith, but I think it’s much better as a conversation than a monologue.

As a result of following the Living Water, I’ve been compelled to help those who are in need. To be completely honest, I’m ridiculously selfish. I wish I could say I do things out of the kindness of my heart, but any good that’s in me is a result of God working through me. With that being said, for my 22nd birthday on November 22nd, I’ve decided to sell my birthday to raise money to build wells in developing nations where people don’t have clean water through an organization called charity: water–the third piece of water in my life.

You already know how important water is to me. I couldn’t go a single day without it, but there are people who are drinking dirty water every day that’s killing them.

In fact, 45,000 people will die this week because they’re drinking dirty water. Every twenty seconds a child dies from a lack of clean water, which means nine have died since the beginning of this speech and another three will die before it’s over.

Dirty water kills more people than cancer and aids combined every single year. People don’t have clean water. People don’t have something we turn a knob for. Something we take for granted. Something we waste.

That doesn’t sit right with me. As a result of that unsettledness, I’ve asked friends, family and strangers to donate $22 for my 22nd birthday to my campaign in an effort to raise $5,000–enough to build a well in a developing nation.

If I raise $5,000 by the end of the year I told the world I’d run another marathon, which is by no means something I would do on my own will. For a lot of people running a marathon isn’t a big deal. For someone who hasn’t run more than a mile in months, I’d call it a pretty big deal.

Oh, and if by some stroke of pure generosity I raise $10,000, I’ll run the marathon barefoot, which is latin for “with no shoes on“.

Is that crazy? Maybe a little. But what’s truly crazy is that people are dying. every. day because they don’t have access to the most basic need on the planet.

My friends, that’s me. That’s my life. That’s how water affects me every single day. Now that the ice is broken, let’s talk about water, because as our boy Arnold says, there is no life without it.