Reflect on your experience with the State Tournament.
What was your?
How did you do?
What was your best memory?
What was your Biggest Challenge?
What advice would you give others who follow?
I took speech because Coach asked me to. I thought, “Yeah, I guess that could be fun.” I was wrong, and I was right, each in part. I was wrong, because I didn’t realize how hard this class was going to be. It was a lot of work that I was not prepared for. Looking back, I really wish I hadn’t ignored that work, and put it off as long as I could. I was right, because the people I met during these competitions were some of the most interesting, entertaining and talented people that I have ever met. A brief history of my speech career: I wrote an ADS piece, didn’t ever perform it because there was no ADS at the competition I went to, so I was stuck doing only Impromptu Speaking, which is terrible. I hated it. It was hard, and I didn’t do any of the work that I needed to do to prepare, because I didn’t think I could prepare. After that, I went into poetry. I loved poetry, and I loved my poetry piece, but it was very controversial. So controversial, that it single-handedly landed me in fifth place each time I performed it. Maybe it was my performance, but who knows?
I would have loved to compete in the state tournament, but instead I was simply a worker bee. On Friday morning/afternoon, I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to figure out where I needed to be, and what I needed to do, all the while I was struggling the fact that these speech kids would not shut up while there were classes going on. That was the most stressful, challenging part of the entire experience. I also made a bunch of flyers for all of the different events. You know, “POI, J101,” or something like that. I was also in charge of cleaning up after, and that didn’t really get done like it should have. I was also, also supposed to make big posters that said, “All these events are down this hallway,” and I didn’t do that either.
The lesson here is this: do. The. Work. The work isn’t that terrible. It’s tedious and time consuming, maybe, but it’s not impossible. Unless you do congress or extemp, and then maybe it’s impossible. Before you decide it’s time to lounge around and relax, make sure all your work is done. Make sure you’ve made the posters, made the maps, researched the topic, rehearsed the piece. Be sure that you’ve done everything you can to the best of your ability, because saying, “Oh, I’ll do it later,” and then once later comes, it’s too late.
My role for the State Tournament was part of crew. And I honestly felt like I did a good job. At first, I was a bit nervous, I’m not really good with talking to people or directing people. I get a little shy, so I had a little break down trying to direct people to the cafeteria. I even asked for help, and I did, but still nobody listened. So, I decided to just grow some courage and I yelled out for people to go to the cafeteria. And then after that, I was a bit comfortable, so when round one started, I helped a lot of people. Even people who didn’t want to ask for help, but needed it. And I got a lot of compliments for how good I was at showing people where to go. Overall, I was out of my comfort zone, but I managed to pull it together and do my job.
The best memory I had was the end during the award ceremony when everybody was just dancing and laughing. I especially loved when Rebecca’s mom was hyping up everybody. I think that was the only fun I had the whole time.
My biggest challenge, like i mentioned before was talking to people. I’m a very shy person, and i don’t really like to talk to people unless I’m comfortable around them, and I was completely uncomfortable with talking to those other schools. They weren’t smiling or anything, they were just mean looking. And some were very stubborn when I tried to help them, they would just say no and keep walking. Then after my tenth time asking, they would give in and let me help them.
Some advice I would give to others to follow is to try to get out of your comfort zone. Yes, some people have mean faces, but as soon as you talk to them, they’ll smile and become so nice. And don’t be afraid to take charge, because if you don’t then you’ll like a bad leader. And nobody wants to look bad, you want to look like you know what you’re doing.
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ReplyDeleteI took speech because Coach asked me to. I thought, “Yeah, I guess that could be fun.” I was wrong, and I was right, each in part. I was wrong, because I didn’t realize how hard this class was going to be. It was a lot of work that I was not prepared for. Looking back, I really wish I hadn’t ignored that work, and put it off as long as I could. I was right, because the people I met during these competitions were some of the most interesting, entertaining and talented people that I have ever met. A brief history of my speech career: I wrote an ADS piece, didn’t ever perform it because there was no ADS at the competition I went to, so I was stuck doing only Impromptu Speaking, which is terrible. I hated it. It was hard, and I didn’t do any of the work that I needed to do to prepare, because I didn’t think I could prepare. After that, I went into poetry. I loved poetry, and I loved my poetry piece, but it was very controversial. So controversial, that it single-handedly landed me in fifth place each time I performed it. Maybe it was my performance, but who knows?
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to compete in the state tournament, but instead I was simply a worker bee. On Friday morning/afternoon, I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to figure out where I needed to be, and what I needed to do, all the while I was struggling the fact that these speech kids would not shut up while there were classes going on. That was the most stressful, challenging part of the entire experience. I also made a bunch of flyers for all of the different events. You know, “POI, J101,” or something like that. I was also in charge of cleaning up after, and that didn’t really get done like it should have. I was also, also supposed to make big posters that said, “All these events are down this hallway,” and I didn’t do that either.
The lesson here is this: do. The. Work. The work isn’t that terrible. It’s tedious and time consuming, maybe, but it’s not impossible. Unless you do congress or extemp, and then maybe it’s impossible. Before you decide it’s time to lounge around and relax, make sure all your work is done. Make sure you’ve made the posters, made the maps, researched the topic, rehearsed the piece. Be sure that you’ve done everything you can to the best of your ability, because saying, “Oh, I’ll do it later,” and then once later comes, it’s too late.
My role for the State Tournament was part of crew. And I honestly felt like I did a good job. At first, I was a bit nervous, I’m not really good with talking to people or directing people. I get a little shy, so I had a little break down trying to direct people to the cafeteria. I even asked for help, and I did, but still nobody listened. So, I decided to just grow some courage and I yelled out for people to go to the cafeteria. And then after that, I was a bit comfortable, so when round one started, I helped a lot of people. Even people who didn’t want to ask for help, but needed it. And I got a lot of compliments for how good I was at showing people where to go. Overall, I was out of my comfort zone, but I managed to pull it together and do my job.
ReplyDeleteThe best memory I had was the end during the award ceremony when everybody was just dancing and laughing. I especially loved when Rebecca’s mom was hyping up everybody. I think that was the only fun I had the whole time.
My biggest challenge, like i mentioned before was talking to people. I’m a very shy person, and i don’t really like to talk to people unless I’m comfortable around them, and I was completely uncomfortable with talking to those other schools. They weren’t smiling or anything, they were just mean looking. And some were very stubborn when I tried to help them, they would just say no and keep walking. Then after my tenth time asking, they would give in and let me help them.
Some advice I would give to others to follow is to try to get out of your comfort zone. Yes, some people have mean faces, but as soon as you talk to them, they’ll smile and become so nice. And don’t be afraid to take charge, because if you don’t then you’ll like a bad leader. And nobody wants to look bad, you want to look like you know what you’re doing.