Fourteen-year-old, Toronto, Canada resident Anika Tabovaradan created quite a stir at a city council meeting when she took the stand to tell the Mayor and the council members how important her local library system is to her. The teen sobbed while telling Mayor Rob Ford how much she loved her local library. When she was finished, uttering the words “I’m not making much sense anymore,” the gallery erupted into applause and cheers. It was the emotional high point of a very, very long day and night.

By 2 a.m. Friday, the teen had been waiting four hours for her turn to address the mayor. As soon as she began to speak the tears came.  Earlier in the week, the 10th-grader wrote out what she wanted to say about her beloved library branch, which she visits almost daily. Instead, she couldn’t get it all out, so she spoke off the cuff and from the heart.

“I’m no taxpayer,” she said, gasping for air, “but when I get to use the computers in the library and do my homework, I’ll be able to get a good job someday … and when the day comes to pay taxes, I’ll be glad that you supported people paying the extra taxes to keep the system going.”

She hasn’t watched a video of herself yet. Perhaps when she does, she’ll understand what all the fuss is about.

See the video here: http://www.thestar.com/news/torontocouncil/article/1032536–video-wild-applause-for-teen-s-2-a-m-speech-for-libraries?bn=1

Courtesy: http://www.abetterlibrary.com/blog/?p=129