My speech for school... (yes, actually)

Based on the title, you're probably very confused. 

You see, I've done a few speeches in the past. One about why we should stop food waste, why you should join the GKR karate club and now, this.

But what makes it so unique from other speeches that I've written is that I wrote this at my school. I was assigned to make a persuasive speech about any topic you like. The topic I chose was why the weekends the should be three days longer.

Not confused anymore? Great, then read on.

Why the weekends should be three days long - by sophia

Nobody likes Mondays. There´s always this excruciating process where we force ourselves to say our farewells to the weekends, and get back to listening to the teachers - or at least most people do - until it's the weekends. Freedom. But before you know it, it is Monday all over again. And the cycle repeats itself.  But what if we put an end to this? What if the weekends were extended to a three day long extent? And if so, what are the benefits? And by the way, it's not just because of more free time. That is why I'm here, standing in front of this crowd, and I'll be explaining why the weekends should be longer.

You can't escape the fact that there is never-ending loads of work to be completed. Math worksheets, writing, an occasional skodel, presentations, I could go on FOREVER from how much work we do. With that in mind, you'll never believe how long we study for. Roughly 23 HOURS A WEEK. 23 hours of jotting things down on papers, and reading out of texts.  There is no way that you wouldn't feel overwhelmed by this..  We don't come to school just because we get stressed out, right? We come to study and catch a few things that we're taught. Stress is a complicated thing. When it affects us, the brain signals serotonin and adrenaline to be released. Long story short, it can make a huge dive on work habits and regulating emotions. How are we supposed to study properly with stress??

Remember how we study for 23 hours a week? How much do we study a year? That's the real question you should be asking. Well,  let me do the math for you. 920 HOURS. Yes people, 920 hours. If we had a three day long weekend, it would surely decrease the intimidating amount of hours we study. This is not healthy. In fact, it's called overworking. I did a bit of digging, and according to a study from Passport Health. "Similarly, overworking has been linked to mental health issues such as depression and anxiety".  This proves that by overworking, it can truly mess up our mental health in ways you can’t even imagine. This must stop.

It's kind of insane how many people do extracurricular activities. A study from Manatu Taonga found that 97% of 12 year olds reported that they do things outside of school. 97% is a big number. That's practically almost everyone in this classroom!! I can't even imagine, after a long day of school, when you just want to catch a breath and lay in your bedroom, you're expected to attend a sports session at a particular time. It might not seem like a need, but taking a break is a definite must. Our lives are a busy and overwhelming mess. Having a three day long weekend could help with that. 

So I've run through all my reasons. I hope doing so would've changed your perspective of how a long weekend could have some positive effects on our work life, stress, and preventing overworking. Our lives would be way easier if we could just take a break, then go back on our things. It would be nice, right? If life and all that stress could be four days long, and we wouldn't have to worry about how limited our rest is. This is why weekends should be three days longer.

And the end! I have to present this speech in front of everyone in a week's time, so I'm really nervous. But it has to be done I guess.

THANKS FOR READING!