Day 254: Speech

     I learned a very important lesson in my public speaking class today. I learned that I'm as not good of a bull-shitter that I previously thought. Today was my first speech, it was an ungraded, very relaxed introductory speech. All you do is go up to the front of the class and talk about a time where you got in trouble as a child. After a couple minutes, you wrap up, everyone applauds, and you sit down so the next person can go. I've given many presentations and I never gave them any though (and I wasn't about to give this one any). I didn't practice or write anything down. I was just going to go up there and talk about whatever came to mind (that was my mistake).

It was my turn to go and I walked up to the podium and mentally decided that I was going to talk about the time I got handcuffed and fined for skateboarding down the sidewalk in downtown Denver. But it wasn't till I started my speech that I realized that I had no idea what I was doing. My mind went blank and I just said "OK" and "Alright" a couple times. I wasn't doing to well. I struggled in the beginning, but built up some momentum after a little while. I finished up my totally improvised story and walked back to my desk. I learned quickly that speeches are in a category all their own. They aren't like informal conversations where you can rely on bullshitting. I didn't well, which is fine because it wasn't graded, but also because it made me realize that a little bit of preparation can go a long way. Don't worry, my next speech will be better.