14-year-old Wichitan places top 10 in a national kindness speech contest
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Nora Ellis, 14, is recognized in the top 10 of a National Kindness Speech Competition. Her speech talked about the definition of kindness and what it is and is not. It’s a topic that has meant a lot to her over the last few years.
During middle school, she saw a lot of bullying, which opened her eyes.
“I could see the way they treated people, how it could affect them,” Nora said. “Last year, in eighth grade, I made it a thing to be nice to those people and see how that affected how they talk to me and see if that would change it. That’s how I just saw the kindness and how much it matters because I had friends who were depressed because of the people who were not kind, and I had people who were super happy because they found the friends that were always nice to them, even if it was hard.”
She used the game of hangman as an analogy, showing the impact of words. One wrong word or letter can make someone loose the game. The right word or letter can land someone a win.
“Think about the words you say more because if you say one wrong word, you don’t know where people are at, so it could push someone off the edge,” Nora said. “But one kind word could keep someone here. It’s kind of like a watch your words thing because you don’t know what someone’s going through, so you don’t know how your words are gonna affect someone.”
Her mom, Laura Ellis, says it’s been exciting getting to see Nora learn from her experiences.
“It was fun to kind of see her set a goal, and then focus on a subject that she had discovered the importance of that over the last year,” Laura said. “To see her write her own speech and hear the things she learned through those really hard experiences was very fulfilling as a parent to see that come full circle, and the lessons that she learned from it.”
Laura says she has seen Nora grow up over the last few years as she has gone through these experiences.
“Getting to the point where she realized it’s more important to be kind to people than having a group of friends,” Laura said. “To see her come from a 7th grader who wasn’t sure about herself to learn her lesson and extending kindness to others and finding confidence through that, it’s a fun thing to see, makes being a parent fun.”
If you would like to nominate a person or business for Positive Connections, fill out KSN’s online contact form.
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