Speech Up

You may recall that I'm a member of Toastmasters. It's a public speaking organization. The idea is that you're improving at it. As long as I've been in the organization, I am often a poor example of how it should be done. I speak less often than I used to. I tend to disdain a lot of visual aids and proper apparel. I consistently wait until the last minute to prepare my speeches. So it was for the big speech contest the other day.

I knew I'd be doing it a month or two months before the day. That might as well be a million years, or a date that exists outside of time in infinity. It doesn't even seem real. Rather than planning something, I'd be more likely to make jokes about expecting to be dead then. Well, it eventually started to feel real. With maybe a week to go, I started to think seriously about planning a speech. Naturally day by day something more pressing seemed to come up.

The day before the contest, I knew I'd have to buckle down. As always it was a crowded day that hardly allowed a moment's rest. There was a training session I had to do downtown. That was kind of neat, thought I'd rather have slept. There was a friend's live sketch comedy show. That was fun, and it always feels good to support someone you care about. There was improv class, and then suddenly it was after 10pm. I was rather tired.

The morning came, and I realized I had slept until 8. I meant to get up at 7, but that didn't happen. I felt like hell at 8, so I slept until 9. That left me three and a half hours to get it done. There's nothing like that kind of pressure to bring on a panicky kind of focus. I had hashed out a vague idea the preceding night, and while showering I fleshed it out. By the time I was heading over on the bus, I had run through it a few times in my head.

I even dressed up. I had on my gray suit with brown shoes, brown sunglasses, a brown shirt and a brow tie. It was all brown and gray except the socks, which were white. That's about as well as I do it. Now, the contest happened. There were little sandwiches and soft drinks. I tried to be cool, but I always get nervous when something's on the line like that. What matters, I think, is that I let no one see. Well, I didn't win, but I don't think anyone saw I was nervous, and I gave a speech that was very popular. Extremely well-liked speeches that people don't vote for are my specialty.