This speech was very powerful and very well structured. I think there is not a stronger statement than “Don’t Ever Give up”. This statement you can usually hear when someone is going through something hard and they think of giving up. Valvano keeps the audience interested by saying different things of his life, jokes, and being inspirational. He was being sentimental and by sharing his experience, he was motivating others. This speech really has a hook, even though I got a little bit lost in one part of the speech, it had a hook. Valvano made his speech personal, by saying personal things like, for example, when he was a coach, of his disease. And letting us into his “world”. He concludes his speech with this: “Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul”. Calling us to not give up on ourselves and help people that need it. It really motivates me to not give up on myself and to help others. Because we never know if the next person who will need help will be us.
In all ways, it’s an inspirational speech.