So, I've been talking about nationals and how excited I am for about forever, well it's now done. Yesterday was the last day of the 2008 National Forensic League national tournament. And it was a great week...so let's recap, and wrap up.
Sunday was registration and the day I met Tyler, no not my love interest. He's my coach for next year and asst director of speech at Bradley. I'd never met him, but he somehow already knew who I was. That was a good feeling!
Monday and Tuesday: preliminary competition...I've never seen two days of Congress that intense before. There were soooo many good people in my chamber, but I thought that I at least had a legit chance of breaking into semi finals. Tuesday night at the Schwan's Party after a really bad, old Elvis impersonator and the mad dash to the postings I found out that I didn't break. But my friend Joe did and a Public Forum team that I'm friends with was undefeated at the time.
Wednesday: Supplementals. Since I didn't break in Congress it was on to Expository. My speech was about Iran because I figured that no judge would want to listen to something that boring, and I had to get out early on so that I could do impromptu. But, lo and behold I made the first breaks. So I really threw the next round and got out. Meanwhile a girl from out school was making great progress in Prose interpretation and by the end of the day was in the top 81.
Thursday: Impromptu! Wow I'd never seen so many kids in one event. We had come up with the number 448, but later found out from tournament officials that there were 560 kids in the first round of impromptu. Then, they cut it to 210, and I made the cut. Next, 84, and I along with 14 others from IN were still in. Top 36, 9 from IN. Then came semi final round, top 15 and I was one of them and so were 4 others from IN. (Our prose girl made it semi finals which was top 13 at this time before getting out). At this point it had been a long day, from 8:30 am, to 7:30 pm. But I had a good topic "The sum of all existence is the magic of being needed by just one person" and I was ready. They then announced the top 6 moving on to finals Friday morning. I gathered around with 14 other competitors and their coaches telling myself that top 15 in the nation isn't so bad. Then, I heard my number! I literally burst into tears because never in a million years could I have imagined I would be in final round at nationals, top 6 in the country out of 560, perforiming on stage in front of everyone.
Friday: Finals. Our finals topics were all political quotes. Mine was L. Hardiman's "Politics comes from the word poly meaning many and the word ticks meaning blood sucking parasites" I thought my analysis was solid, so did several coaches, but I had some fluency slip ups, something no one else really did. That night at awards I ended up getting sixth place, the other Hoosier in finals (another female) got 5th. But hey, I can't complain. Better than Tyler falling over me and telling the head coach how excited he was for me to be on the team and better than the trophy and all the congratulations from the rest of IN and "friend" teams from NY and New Mexico was seeing one of the judges. She came up to me and told me that she had wanted me to win because even though the other kids were more polished, she said seeing me speak gave her hope for the future.
And that right there my friends is what I've been preaching about the last few weeks. They gave me 5 minutes, to manipulate a quote into an analysis that sent a message, and while I may not have changed the world, I got my message out and I touched someone. That is the best memory I'll ever have about Vegas.
But now it's off to Cali where I can finally get my usage of Pro U back on track.
5 days and 500 kids later
By vern - Posted on June 21st, 2008
This was rely interesting to read. I've always been so afraid of public speaking that I never did forensics in high school (though I did everything else). I had no idea how the competition worked, so thanks for explaining it. And congrats on the huge compliment from the judge!
:D
You may be interested in this thing I learned for elementary students. It's an activity designed to help them develop comfort speaking in front of people. It's called "The One Minute Club." Kids write topics that anyone could talk about on a slip of paper and put them in a jar. Then throughout the year, when there is down time or transition time or something, the teacher can take a volunteer to join The One Minute Club. The student draws a topic and talks for one minute. They succeed in joining the club if they can stay on topic and avoid pausing for more than five consecutive seconds. Some teachers use it to review the previous day's work, too, as in "Who can talk for one minute about Louis and Clark? You will gain entry in the One Minute Club!" And everybody makes a big deal of it when someone succeeds.
I think its a really cute way to positively reinforce the idea that their ideas, words, and thoughts are valuable. I wish my elementary teachers had done this!
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
Forensics is all I did. Literally it was and is my life.
That is a really great idea. I wish my teachers had done that too. But, that is essentially how impromptu works, just extended. At the national level you draw three topics, pick one, you have five minutes to think, and then five minutes to deliver a thorough analysis of your topic. But in Indiana we only have 30 seconds to prep, so that 5 minutes really helped.
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Do you find it odd that you are not as strong as you once thought?
But you are a rock star to do it! Kudos.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
haha I never thought of myself of a rock star but thanks =)
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Do you find it odd that you are not as strong as you once thought?
It sounds like you had a great trip! Sounds like you did pretty well, also! It always feels good to know that you made an impact on others!
yes I did, yes I did, and yes it does...lol it was definitely an experience I'll remember for the rest of my life
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Do you find it odd that you are not as strong as you once thought?