Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Speech

“I pray that I may be all that she would have been had she lived in an age when women could aspire and achieve and daughters are cherished as much as sons.” The exact date escapes me, unfortunately; but luckily, those words never do. During my senior year of high school, I was enrolled in a U.S. Politics class, being taught by a teacher who had a profound impact on my life. One day, the teacher forced us to watch the most dull, lifeless documentary ever known to man. It was all about the judicial branch, the Supreme Court and their role in U.S. government. I, along with all my classmates, were moving in and out of small snoozes—it was that dry. During one of the moments where my eyes were momentarily open and my ears were attentive, it happened. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second female to ever be on the Supreme Court was giving her acceptance speech of her nomination by former President, Bill Clinton. In that speech, towards

The long days she spent working in the winery, the nights she cried herself to sleep greatly missing her homeland, the mornings she woke at four in the morning before work, just to practice her English so she wouldn’t be a burden to others. And the moments I, nor anyone else, discovered—the sacrifices she kept secret, solely to herself, without a whisper or mumble of them. It was not the moment that captured my memory, nor was it specifically my hearing the words of Ginsburg. It was more of how they affected me. And let me tell you, they affected me greatly and grandly. It was what the words triggered within me, the thought of my grandmother and all that she has done and how, by living my dream, I am also living the one she never had the opportunity to