Answer and Explanation:
When David McCullough Jr states in his speech "you are not special" he is showing his audience how adulthood will not treat them with affection, as the audience's family does to each of them. David McCullough Jr meant that although the public has been pampered, protected and treated as if they were different and special, by their families, they are just ordinary people and adulthood will not treat them special but will treat them with difficulties and challenges that will often not be conquered.
The way David McCullough Jr describes the difficulties of adult life can be associated with the lines of the song "The Climb" sung by Miley Cyrus that say "There's always gonna be another mountain/I'm always gonna wanna make it move/Always gonna make it move be an uphill battle/Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose." While this sounds demotivating, David McCullough Jr shows that this is what will, in fact, teach the public how to live, create experiences and allow them to recognize who they truly are, understand their limits and realize that they are not special, must fight to survive .
The way in which David McCullough Jr reinforces that adolescence is a phase of extreme protection can be associated with the following lines of the song "100 Years" sung by "Five for Fighting:" Fifteen, there's still time for you/Time to buy and time to lose yourself." Through these lines, we can see that David McCullough Jr reinforces the idea that adulthood is different from adolescence, as a matter of time. In adulthood, time is scarce and everything has to be resolved quickly, there is no more time to play or lose yourself, as time is essential for more serious difficulties to be resolved.
