Spotlight on Tristan Espinoza — A Rotary Standout
With the Speech Contest approaching, I wanted to share the most unforgettable speech I’ve heard in all my years with Rotary. It was delivered in 2013 by Tristan Espinoza, and it still resonates today.
Tristan was part of the very first class that Sheila and Ed guided through the program. That year, he served as Rotary Senior Class President and graduated as Cajon High School’s valedictorian, a rare pairing of leadership and academic excellence.
His talent and dedication earned him a full-ride scholarship to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the country’s top art schools. Tristan also represented our club in the Rotary District Speech Contest, where he delivered a powerful, moving address that won first place and a $700 scholarship.
Tristan’s speech wasn’t just well-crafted — it was courageous, insightful, and deeply human. It set a standard for what the Four-Way Test can inspire in young leaders, and it remains the benchmark by which I measure every speech that’s followed.
- Ed Ridder
Tristan's Speech
Heat a large non-stick frying pan just around medium temperature. Take a large bowl and whisk the eggs, pouring in a teaspoon of milk for every egg, and a dash of salt for every two. Beat them passionately for 2 minutes. At this point, the pan should be at a warm enough temperature to start melting butter with a satisfying amount of sizzle, so slap on a tablespoon of butter and spread it around. Once the very last of the butter is melting, add the egg mixture. Don’t stir them until you see that the eggs have begun to settle. After you’ve added the eggs, Martha Stewart says, “Using a heatproof flexible spatula, gently pull eggs to the center of the pan.” This lets the liquid parts run out, which you can distribute by tilting the pan. Eventually the runny parts of the egg will solidify, meaning that it’s time to flip them all over. Allow the eggs to cook for another fifteen to twenty-five seconds and transfer them to serving plates. Add salt and pepper for a little taste.
That is the recipe for scrambled eggs. Of course, certain things differ; the level of doneness you desire, or maybe the herbs and spices you use. I like mine when it’s a shiny wet yellow, with diced tomatoes and basil. But it’s not the tomatoes or the basil that makes these stories important. What makes them important is that I am seventeen. That I am a senior on the cusp of my future. That, by all accounts and purposes, I am capable of providing for myself. But that was something I didn’t realize until the morning I made scrambled eggs. That was the morning when I learned how to be a Rotarian, because it was the first time when I truly thought about how to place service above self.
See, during the summer, I learned about this recipe for the “perfect” scrambled eggs, so on some mornings, I’d wake up, head on over to my fridge, and grab the eggs, milk, and butter to make some. Of course, I’m a big boy, so two or three eggs never cut it. I always used five or six, and never intended on sharing. However, the first time I did this, after I finished cooking, one of my sisters, Micah, came out, saw my eggs, and told me, “You never made us breakfast before!”, and she hugged me. I thought to myself, “Actually, this breakfast was for me.” But before those words left my mouth I realized that that was probably not a brotherly thing to say, and so instead, I told her, “Yeah, help yourself.” When my tinier sister woke up, we all ate the scrambled eggs together.
Now, was it the truth? Obviously not. If Micah hadn’t woken up at that moment, I would have been perfectly satisfied eating those eggs all by myself. But she did, and my eggs became our eggs, because I never told my sisters that I cooked those eggs for me. It was a lie by omission.
Here’s what people think of lies: they are said by those who are selfish. And I guess you could say I was being selfish. At first, I thought I lied because I didn’t want Micah and Allyssa to think I was a bad brother. I was out for myself. And then I reflected on it. I realized it was less about what I wanted my sisters to think about me and more about the kind of selflessness I wanted to see in the world. In 1996 the U.S. Census Bureau documented the domestic situations of traditional two-parent households. They found 140,000 instances of children caring for their own siblings. I wanted to be for my sisters what those children were for their siblings, to teach them what it meant to be accountable for someone other than yourself. The lie, in this instance, became an act of selflessness, and last time I checked, that’s what Rotary is all about.
Rotary is also about being fair. However, you can’t really apply fairness to this. Cooking scrambled eggs isn’t a game. There’s no “winner” in that sense, no rules to be followed (save for not drowning it in salt). There isn’t a way to determine “fairness” here, although, I guess there’s a mother chicken out there who’ll never know the baby chicks who’ve contributed to the sustenance of my body. Instead, let me apply “fairness” to what comes after the cooking of scrambled eggs: the clean-up. Someone has to wash the dishes, after all.
Arguing about who would wash the dishes was a lot more passionate than it needed to be. We compromised by exempting the cook from cleaning duty (i.e., me) and by having the other two take turns. So, for breakfast, I didn’t wash the dishes; Micah would one day, Allyssa the next. Where did that leave me? Well, I’m not the one who makes lunch. Everyone did an equal amount of work when it came to washing the dishes. It was, indeed, fair to all concerned.
Don’t get me wrong though, the important part was the making of the scrambled eggs, and not the clean-up. I can’t emphasize enough the relevance of cooking breakfast for the first time, because I never needed to. Mom left breakfast on the counter, or there might have been cereal in the cupboards. But on that summer morning, the counter was empty, and we were currently suffering from a severe cereal deficit.
So when Micah saw the eggs that morning, I’m certain that she felt a sense of gratitude towards me, because no one else would have made breakfast. She felt gratitude because I provided, because she wouldn’t need to worry about feeling the pain of hunger. In fact, Micah was so thankful that she offered to make lunch in the afternoon. Cooking scrambled eggs built goodwill and a better friendship between me and my sisters.
It must be easy to tell then, that there are few, if any, negative consequences to my cooking scrambled eggs. I was growing up. Mid-way through the meal, I realized what had just occurred: I made scrambled eggs. I did. Not my mom, or my sister, but me. More importantly, I made them because I needed to, and because I understood that I could. What I did was take a step towards being a Rotarian. That morning, I fed myself and my siblings. That morning, I learned how to provide for someone other than myself. That morning, I lit the fire that inspires people to help others. It’s not an understatement to say that making scrambled eggs was beneficial to all concerned.
But being a Rotarian involves so much more than being able to make scrambled eggs, more than being able to apply the Four-Way Test to everyday decisions. It’s about being selfless, not just for others, but for yourself, also, because to exemplify service above self is to demonstrate that helping others is your passion, that you wake up every morning and plan to help someone, anyone, anywhere, with anything, today. You plan for today, because it’s this moment that you cross the barrier from person to Rotarian. Today is the moment, when making scrambled eggs, that you decide to flip everything over.
Rotary District 5330 is set to showcase the next generation of leaders at the Four-Way Test Speech Contest Finals, taking place on Saturday, March 14, 2026. Hosted at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Banning, CA, this event challenges youth to apply Rotary’s core ethical principles to their own lives and contemporary issues. To ensure a spot on the stage, club chairs must register their single club contestant before the February 21 deadline. On the day of the event, participants should plan to arrive between 8:15 and 8:30 a.m., as the competition officially begins at 9:00 a.m.. Rotarians, families, and friends are all encouraged to attend and support these talented speakers, and since there is no charge for admission, it's a perfect way to spend a Saturday morning being inspired by the community's youth.
