This is the text of a speech I gave last night. It took first place in the local competition for best inspirational speech. I’ll be presenting it at the area competition on March 8. Stay tuned.

Let me tell you about my favorite episode of the Twilight Zone.

A couple wakes up one morning and discovers that their home is overrun by faceless workmen dressed all in blue. Terrified, they run out of their house to discover that their neighborhood has been completely abandoned, except for these strange workmen who are busy tearing everything down.

Eventually, the couple manages to find the foreman of the work crew and he explains what’s happened. Somehow, they’ve slipped through the cracks of time. According to the foreman, time doesn’t work the way we would expect. Every second we pass through is a unique and complete world unto itself. For each second of time, these workmen have to build an entire world. And then once we pass through that second, the workmen have to tear that world down to make room for more time to come.

So, in this story, time is kind of like the frames in a movie. We all know that when we watch a movie, we aren’t really seeing moving pictures. We’re seeing individual still pictures arranged to create the illusion of motion. And of time.