T3B59

OMG, the speech provincials were just AMAZING.

I learned so much. I felt kind of like this weekend was wasted, though, because I didn't do my best--but one person mentioned at our celebratory lunch that you learn a lot.... unless you do well. So I guess this wasn't wasted--because I learned a lot. XP That was kinda complicated.

We had lik 8 rounds, which is A LOT for a tournament. I could have done better in my debate rounds, I think I was just tired that day and I didn't do as well as I could have.

For interpretive reading, I think those were my best rounds--Mr. Hauck recommended me to read, "This is Water", an essay by David Foster Wallace, and it was really good. I found this speech (shortened) version of this, and I used that with a few edits, because it was still too long.

For persuasive speaking, I don't think my topic was "big" enough. A lot of the best speakers tackled really big topics, like drugs and poverty, whereas I talked about dropping math scores across Canada. I think my topic could have been bigger and more exploratory, which would have made it better. I'll keep that in mind for next time.

For impromptu, oh my goodness, it was legitly awful. It was (take a deep breath) calamitous, deplorable, lousy, pitiful, sad, unfortunate, unsatisfactory, woeful, terrible, made me want to cry of how bad it was, etc.

Okay, no it wasn't that bad, but it sure seemed like it at the time.

So, you notice that the really good speakers are creative and can make any topic into a deep, worldly problem, arguable topic.

This one guy got something like, "The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook." a quote by William James.

AND HE SOMEHOW MANAGED TO TURN IT INTO NEGLECTING THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES BY FIRST WORLD COUNTRIES

AND I WAS LIKE WHAT THE HECK HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE WHY IS HE SO GOOD

LIKE WHAT WHAT WHAT

And I got like, "You make a living by what you get, you make a life by what you give."

And I didn't take it anywhere, I just talked about a contrast between a billionaire named John and a single parent named Mary. (I know, I have the best names. XP) AND I JUST TALKED ABOUT MONEY NOT BEING THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN LIFE AND I COULD HAVE JUST KICKED MYSELF

AAAAAGHHHH

Actually I just listened to it now, and it's not as bad as I thought. Maybe I banana-sundaes it better than I thought. XP At least, I sound more confident than I was.

My second round was... well, in some ways better, and in some ways worse.

The advice that Mr. Hauck gave me was to be creative--because they're not looking for the amazingly polished arguments set out in the persuasiveness, they're looking for your ability to take something ordinary and turn it into something extraordinary. My second topic was "Milk". (LIKE, MILK. WHAT ON EARTH??? WHERE DO THEY EVEN COME UP WITH THESE THINGS???) But then I thought about milk going sour (because my family's terrible at finishing milk. We don't like milk XP) and then I thought about friendships going sour. BOOM. MY AWFUL MILK/FRIENDSHIP ANALOGY WAS BORN.

I talked about how it takes a long time for you to meet friends (waiting to be picked up as milk), and sometimes it goes sour (same) but something good might come out of it--you could meet someone new (yogurt/cheese. I <3 yogurt, by the way, but that's beside the point.)

Anyways. It was kind of awkward.

Still, I learned a lot, and I'm super excited for the next speech tournament. :)

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