If I were to give you a pen and ask how much value would it hold to someone? You'd probably think of its cost and reply "not much", or maybe you'd think of how useful it can be, and maybe say "too much". But I have a different measure for one of the things I hold dear. 

It was neither its cost nor its utility that made it special. It was something else. Something abstract. To understand better, we have to start from the beginning. 

Good evening Toastmasters, fellow toastmasters, and guests! 

Imagine a 17-year-old guy from a small town entering a 300-acre establishment: an establishment that draws a line between a familiar past and an unraveling future. A place filled with friends and foes, promises moments high and low. He stepped in that place, unbeknownst to the fact that the life which he knew to be a slow and happy journey would pick up the pace and become an adventure. But don't be anxious, the story is not so sad. It's just that when so many things are changing. It would drive anyone mad.

In such an ever-changing fast-paced environment, there will always be some things that would stay the same. It can be a hobby, a person, or the dream with which he came. But in this case, it was so vital, it was not something fancy or something to take pride in. It was a cheap plastic flash drive.

It was bought as probably the first purchase he did online. Everyone said he'd regret it (it was very cheap you know) but he thought it was fine. Moreover, he not only bought one quantity but a small stock to give to others. Neither for for-profit nor loss but for earning a few good friends. Thus, this flash drive helped him to make the very good connections he wanted.

Generally, in friends, if somebody has Pendrive, it automatically means that it is for public use. This flash drive used to go through many laptops, computers (including virus-infected machines too). But in the whole year Antivirus software never detected a single threat. That’s the time we named it The Magical Pendrive. Even while going to the computer lab, we had to leave our laptop bags outside. Many of us used to have the same “Dell” logo bag. At the end of lab hours, I used to find my bag by searching for my Pendrive in all the bags.

Two years have passed. This magical little thing was getting famous. It maintained its strength, performance, and immunity. But one day something happened to it. It got a crack in its plastic part which was slowly and slowly getting degenerated. Now, it was time to care for it. I decided I will keep it alive till my 4 years of engineering and will not let anybody else use it. Also, I and my roommate, Umang, decided to put in a frame after our graduation.

My 3rd year of engineering has also passed with no further harm to this magical flash drive. With all my luck and hard work, I got a summer internship in a startup. As always I used to keep it in my backpack. One day When I didn't find it inside my bag. My colleagues noticed me nervous and anxious as I started to find over desks. I was so upset I didn’t write a single piece of code that day. And I was like I lost a very valuable thing with which I had a lot of memories and dreams. I ran towards my PG. I asked my roommate to search in his wardrobe. We searched in the entire room but didn’t find it. Finally, I lost it :(

In my 4th year of engineering, I came back to my college and shared this incident with my friends. They simply said you have already consumed its price, but for me, its price didn't matter. The importance of its 3 years of journey with many memories and stories was valuable.

Now, whenever we college friends meet, we always have the stories of that magical Pendrive to share, laugh and cheer. No matter how it’s not between us but it still refreshes our minds.

Dear Friends, it doesn’t matter how rich you are or how royal you are. Every single thing matters in our life. A thing that was cheap once can indeed be bought now at a higher price. But we can’t buy the value or importance of the thing we had earlier. There are some little magical things in our life that we don’t want to lose them.

On the other side, there are some things for which we have already paid or now it’s free. If we are not paying respect or importance to it, it will be soon gone away from our life.

Thank you so much! Over to Toastmaster of the Day.