“Amanda, honey! Come help me with my speech! I’m giving it on public libraries in America and how I believe that they need and deserve more funding than they are being given.”

“Dad! Are you sure I am able to write a speech for something that important?”

“Sure you are, sweetie. Your writing ability is phenomenal, and if you don’t help me, I won’t be able to give this speech” he says as he smirks the kisses her on the side of her head.

So, Amanda sits down with her father, Mr. Smith and starts to help him write his speech. Along the way he takes quotes about what she thinks about libraries and adds them into his speech.

“Dad, I am feeling like I’m not doing very well. Like you don’t like my ideas or what I’m saying.”

“Honey, you’re only 12 so you often don’t see things the same way as the adults in this world, but you’re learning, and you’re learning very quickly. This is just one of several speeches that you have written and that you will write.”


Mr. Smith’s speech the next day is not as great and inspirational as he is used to because he pretty much let his daughter write the whole thing. But he knew that he had to do such things in order to help his daughter out in her passion for writing.

For Amanda's 16th birthday her dad does something very special for her. He writes a huge speech about how he thinks that foster children all over the world should get a chance to have at least one birthday party and how he thinks they should put together a big birthday party for the city. At the end of his speech, he tells everyone that his sixteen year old daughter had been writing his speeches for him for the last four years.

It wasn’t even 24 hours later when their landline was blowing up with activists all over the world. They were calling Amanda and leaving voicemail after voicemail for her to listen to with many different pay opportunities and living opportunities.

Amanda came home from school the next day. She dreaded having to listen to the voice mails. But she sat down with a pad of paper and a pencil to write down everyone’s name and phone number who had called so she could at least call and thank them if she did not want to take their offer.

“Hello, Amanda Smith. This is Caleb Herrell. I am an activist and currently live in Michigan. I have been looking for someone with your writing ability and potential to write my speeches for me. I offer 35% of my pay to my speechwriter and I pay for your full housing and utilities. Please give me a call back if you are interested. Thank you so much”.

“Hi, Amanda. My name is Devon O’Hera and I am extremely impressed with the speeches that you have written for your father. If you would like a change of scene, please call me to discuss relocating. At that time we can also discuss pay and where you would room. Thank you for your time”.


Amanda listened to several of these inbox messages before she finally came across one that caught her attention.
“Hi, Amanda. My name is Ryan Jones and I am currently residing in Ohio. I know you have gotten many phone calls already about you going to work for activists as their speechwriter. But I have a different proposal. I am 19 years old and just starting out. I would like to come to your town and have you write speeches for me and I would like to watch and learn from your father. My pay isn’t great right now but I would like to give you 50% of what I make. Give me a call back if you would like to consider and discuss this further. Thank you and I hope to hear back from you soon.”

This seemed to be the best option by far because Amanda was only 16 years old. She could not move away just yet and she knew that this could help her career take off. Although she was feeling very anxious about all of this she called Ryan back and explained her requests.

“Hey, Ryan. This is Amanda Smith?”
“Yes, thanks so much for calling me back.” he said with excitement.
“Anytime, do you have a few minutes?” she said.
“I’ve got all of the time you need.”
“Okay, Cool. I talked with my parents about many of the proposals and yours by far fits with my current situation. I am only 16 and I am not old enough to move away and I am still in school. We would like you to come live in our guest house and pay a small amount of rent. Utilities are already paid for. We just ask that you pay for your personal items and food unless you are dining out with us”.
Amanda waits a few seconds but doesn’t hear anything.
“Hello?” she says with curiosity.
“Oh, hello. Sorry” he says. “I can’t believe this is really happening right now”.
“Well, believe it!” Amanda says.


Ryan moves to Virginia to live with the Smith family in their guest house. He is filled with extreme gratitude and appreciation.

A few years pass and Amanda writes all sorts of small speeches for Ryan to help start him off and continues to write for her father. When Amanda turns 22, tragedy strikes the Smith family and Mr. Smith passes away with the night.


“Honey?” Mrs. Smith says as she walks into Amanda’s room slowly waking her up.

“Yeah, mama?”

“You know how dad has been really sick?”

“What mom?! What’s going on?! Is dad okay?” Amanda says in a worried tone.

“He’s feeling a lot better, baby. He went to heaven last night. You should go out back once you’re ready and let Ryan know. I know that he really looked up to him.


Amanda hides under her blankets and begins to gently cry. She knows that this is a sad moment, but that her father is feeling much better and they all knew that this was coming.

Amanda gets up about an hour later and hops in the shower and gets ready for the day. Then, she proceeds outside to the guest house to tell Ryan.


“Hey, Ryan…” Amanda says gently.

“Hey, Amanda. Would you like to come in?” he says.

“Sure. I need to tell you something. You might need to take a seat.”

“Is everything okay?”

“My father passed away last night. He went in his sleep.” she says.


Ryan slowly gets up and stumbles to his bedroom and slams the door. Amanda walks over to his door and leans her head against it.

“Are you okay?” Amanda says.

“I think you should leave” he says.

Amanda slowly walks toward the front door of the guest house. She knew everyone needed their space but she didn’t want to give him, of all people, his space. She wanted to comfort him. As she left the guest house, Ryan peaked through the curtain and watched her walk away. He didn’t want her to go away. He wanted her to stay. He loved her, but he could never tell her.

She headed back to her house and went upstairs into her bedroom to write in her journal. As she was writing, she decided that she needed to continue on writing speeches for her father and Ryan. She also thought that her mother and sister needed to give the speeches. She could not give them herself because she was extremely insecure and shy and could not even stand the thought of having to stand in front of hundreds of people with them staring at her.

After writing and thinking a lot she goes down stairs to talk to her mom and sister.


“I want to keep writing.” Amanda tells her mother and sister.

“You should” her sister says.

“No, like speeches. I want to continue on what dad was doing and carry him on” Amanda says.

“Well, sweetie, if you feel like that’s the right thing to do, then keep at it. But if you want to take a break, we all understand” Mrs. Smith says.

“Dad never took a break. I wouldn’t be carrying him on with us if I took a break. I get this is hard for everyone, but we need be to brave” Amanda says with passion. “But I need your help. Both of you.”

“Oh-oh. What is it?” Amanda’s sister exclaims.

“As I write the speeches, I need you guys to give these speeches. You guys know how afraid I am of standing up in front of people and having hundreds of eyes on me.” she says. “Can you please do that for me? ..For dad?”

“Of course we can” Mrs. Smith says.


Once the news got out that Mr. Smith had passed away, there were activists calling Amanda again asking her to write for them. She tried to explain that she still had Ryan to write for, but since he wasn’t as experienced, they thought it would make more sense for Amanda to come and write for them. Amanda was getting over anxious about all of these calls and demands. She was tired of the press asking her questions everywhere that she went and she was tired of seeing her face on the news and in newspapers. She just wanted everything to settle down.

Eventually, things did settle down. Amanda wrote a poem about Women's Rights that was meant for her mother to present. She spent weeks and weeks on this speech. She read it Ryan over and over again. It was the longest she has ever spent on writing a speech. After hearing her mother practice this time after time, she realized how indented this speech is into her. She asks her mom if she can talk to her so her mother sits down and they begin to talk.

“Mom?” Amanda says.

“Yes, dear. I know. I need to sound sterner.”

“No. You’re fine. But...can I do this one?”

“What do you mean ‘can I do this one’ “Mrs. Smith says.

“I want to give this speech. I’m really passionate about this one. I’ve spent almost a month writing it, and I feel like all of the emotion in it is mine. Not yours.”

“What about your anxiety, Amanda? You’ve never stood in front of anyone and talked your whole life. What makes you think that you can stand in front of hundreds and tell them about Women's Rights?” she says.

“Dad taught me how to be brave. How to have strength. And I’ve read this to Ryan a ton of times” she says as she points to him standing in the doorway.

“But, Amanda. Your mom is right, you’ve never talked in front of anyone but me before. How are you going to be ready for this? The speech is next week” Ryan says with concern.

“Please. Just please let me do this. Dad would let me do it.”

“Okay, Amanda. Go ahead. But it’s not as easy as it looks.”

“I’m going to practice. Day and night. I won’t stop until it’s perfect. I’ll perform for friends. For our whole family. We can invite grandma! And Aunt Lauren! I’ll do whatever it takes” she says pleadingly.


Amanda practices with Ryan day in and day out until the day came. She was feeling really confident about what she was about to do.

They were in the car on their way to the speech site. As they drove farther and became closer to the site she began to get extremely nervous.

“I don’t think I can do this. We need to go home” Amanda exclaims.

Ryan scoots closer to her in the car and puts his arm around her. “You’ve got this. You’ve been practicing every day and I see how passionate about this that you are. You’re going to do great. Just think about how proud your father would be of you” he says.

Amanda leans into him and lets him comfort her. She starts to feel extremely low but knows that what Ryan says is true and that her dad would be proud of her.

They arrive at the site of where Amanda will be giving her speech. They get out of the car.

“My heart is pounding!” Amanda says nervously. Ryan then pulls her in and hugs her tightly. Her heartbeat slows and she finds comfort in the fact that her family and Ryan is there to support her no matter how good or bad she does.

Ryan walks Amanda up onto the stage and introduces her to make sure she gets up there and people know who she is. Ryan gets a little nervous himself as he looks out. He has given many activist speeches in the last six years, but has never seen a crowd this big. Mr. Smith’s daughter, his speechwriter, is giving a speech herself. It seemed that it was quite an attraction to the public.

Ryan walks off stage after introducing Amanda and her topic. Amanda gives her speech which ends up being about twenty minutes. She messes up a little here and there, but never felt too insecure about it because she had seen her dad mess up a few times and it was never that big of a deal.

At the end of her speech she invites up her mom, sister, and Ryan. She thanked each one of them for supporting her in her decisions to write and to give this speech in honor of her father. Each person makes a small speech thanking the audience for coming and talking about their love for Amanda. Ryan is the last one to speak.

“I would like to thank each and every one of you for coming out here today to listen to Amanda talk about the rights women have and the rights she believes they should have and shouldn’t have. I am very proud of Amanda for taking this step out of her comfort zone and speaking today. It has really inspired me to step out of my comfort zone as well” Ryan says then put his hand in his pocket and turns to Amanda. He gets down on one knee. “Amanda, after working with you for 6 years, I have seen you grow into the person you are today, and along the way I have fallen in love with you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and working with you. You are the reason I am who I am today. Will you marry me?” he says passionately.

Amanda begins crying. “Of course I will, Ryan. These last few months have been crazy but you have been nothing but supportive of everything that I have done. You inspire me to keep writing and to give speeches also. I am also the person I am today because of you and your support. Thank you.”


Amanda and Ryan get married just a few short months later, and move to New York, where Amanda continues to write for Ryan and pursues giving speeches herself. She starts out with just doing speeches with her husband then soon starts giving them herself while teaching Ryan to write himself.
They live happily ever after. ?