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Occasional Inspirations

For 2014, I decided to follow some of the 365 writing prompts given by The Daily Post. Check it out. It was recommended by a turtle (Don't ask.)

Thursday, February 23, 2012

My Embarrassing Speech and What I Learned From It~!

I remember my first speech as if it was yesterday. Ah... Oh wait, it WAS yesterday. And it was disastrous, I can tell you that. I had it all planned in my head, what I was gonna do, what I was gonna say. And when I steeped on the stage and grasped the mike in my hands, it all went POOF. When I looked back, I realised I made too many mistakes, and gave the audience (The students.) too little info. And as soon as I stepped off the stage, I sank to the ground. Funny how my legs knew when to lose their strength at just the right moment.

 Simply put, it was a failure. I lost all my confidence back there. Being the emotional me, I finally broke down when I unexpectedly bumped into my English teacher, whom I avoided on purpose out of guilt for not doing better. It's okay now, though. I'll just have to... Find a dark corner... A-and weep my heart out quietly. *sniff*

 Still, I learned many things from the embarrassing incident:

  •          i.            Never trust the timetable
      This was the main factor of the failure of my speech. Initially, as it was written on paper, my speech was due a week later. My teacher, however, had a sudden change of heart, and decided to bring it earlier as ‘there would be many future events , and there would be no time  during the coming weeks’.

           ii.            Never confide in your joker friend
     This is very much a must if you have doubts on your choice of topic. I had chosen my topic a week earlier (What was my topic, you ask. Wait for it. Read on.) had it all planned out. Then two days before my turn, I made the mistake of asking for my joker friend’s opinion. ‘Boring.’ Was his reply, which panicked me. As a result, I spent the final day trying  to think of other fascinating topics instead of focusing on my choice.

          iii.            Write your points down...
    ... Uness you’re sure your memory won’t fail, you however strong it might be, when you face the audience. Trust me, you do not want to hem and haw while you talk in front of them. If you think it’s annoying when other people do that, it’s annoying to them when YOU do that.

         iv.            Choose a suitable, tease-proof topic to talk about when you talk to a audience that's prone to teasing
     If you don’t mind being the centre of attention, don’t mind me, just carry on reading the next point. My topic was something you wouldn’t hear usually/ awkward at my school... It’s entitled... Ugh... ‘Puppy Love’. My audience was obviously the type who likes to tease their mates at every, and I mean EVERY chance they could get. Put the two together, and BAM! You get called Puppy for the rest of the day... And most probably the rest of the year.

     Heck, when I stepped into the library, the trainee teacher took one look at me and yelled, ‘It’s Puppy Love!’ Yes, even teachers called me that for the whole day.

           v.            Don't be too hard on yourself
     This is the most valuabe thing I learnt that day. All I thought after the speech was:

     OMG, IT WAS SO BAD. I’M DOOMED. IT WAS TERRIBLE, I COULD SEE IT IN THEIR EYES. THEY’RE DISAPPOINTED. I’M A FAILURE. I’M SO DUMB. WHAT A COWARD... ETC.

     Yeah, it’s true. I felt that negative the whole day. But, throughout the day, friends and teachers came up to me and said, ‘Hey, nice speech! It was funny! Even the headmaster lauged!’ (What, really? Achievement unlocked! :D), ‘You were very calm, despite the fact that you were panicking.’, ‘You had very nice points!’, ‘It’s okay, it was good enough. Your friends were like “Go, you can do it!” when you paused and cried.’(I didn’t realise they were cheering me on. I didn’t know I was CRYING ONSTAGE. My life is RUINED. D:) One even told me to stop being too hard on myself, and not to give up. It’s a relief knowing that they were feeling the opposite of what I thought. :)

    That’s all the lessons I could think of from that speech. It wasn’t all that bad in the end. At least it inspired me to write a short story. Have a nice day~! :D

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Teens, is Becoming Pregnant the Norm Now?

Boy picks girl up at house ---> They eat ---> They talk ---> They walk ---> They do the 'thing' (If you know what I mean.)

 That's my friend's concept of what he thinks teenage couples usually do whenever they go out. I then asked him why he thought teenagers were shameless enough to do it in public, right after they finished walking. He revised his concept:
                                                                                                           They open door                
Boy picks girl up at house ---> They eat ---> They talk ---> They walk ^---> They do the 'thing'

I then replied by asking him why there was suddenly a door in the middle of the sidewalk? Did it fall out from the sky, or does Doraemon really exist? He answered by punching my arm.

 But he does have a point. As you all may or may not know, we live in the era where teen pregnancy and drunks are the norm, and virgins and sober are considered socially awkward. I remember a few years back, when the news of a 13 year old who became a father shocked me and my family.Go to Facebook. You'd find loads of pregnant teens in a certain country, whose name I shall not divulge *coughcoughUSAcoughcough*. I did see one going by the lines of 'Hooray, I'm finally 13! I can get pregnant and go on MTV and get drunk and wild now! :D' Well, it probably didn't go like that, but she was implying it in that sense.

 It's kind of sad to see them act like dumb bimbos, hating smart and goodhearted people. I hate to admit it (Since I'm also a teen), but though the present's technology has advanced, our moral values have been dying slowly. The way things are now, I'd hate to see what the future generations would do in their adolescence...

Friday, February 3, 2012

Wonder What It's Like To Be Famous

When I logged on to Facebook like I usually do when there's nothing else on the library's to-do list (I'm a librarian, in case you have guessed.), I was greeted with a fascinating post on my news feed. It instructed people to tune in to tune in to a radio station, as there was an hour long interview of someone we know. That meant I had less than 40 minutes to find a radio, plus a good place to hear the interview static-free. After barging into a third floor dorm (Apparently, the higher you are, the clearer the signal, and cursing to myself as I frantically flipped through the frequency countless times (Don't get me wrong. I knew the frequency. It's just that my school is in another state. Can you blame moi for not knowing it was the same frequency over here too?), I finally got through just in time to hear her cheery voice, seconds before a song came on.

 As I listened to the interview, a memory struck me. I reminisced the first time I heard her sing for a Hannah Montana competition at school a few years back. I thought, wow, cool, she's famous now. I'm listening to someone I know on radio. Then a question popped up in my mind; what is it like to be famous? I'm pretty sure famous people were always happy, right? I know if I could gain as much popularity as my friend's getting right now, I'd probably be able to snap my fingers while I'm writing this and a fan would somehow manage to break into my house and come rushing to me with a cuppa tea for me to sip on. I'd be able to ask for things that I couldn't ask for now because I'm rich. 'Hey, that's kinda true.', you people might say. 'I'm gonna try to be famous! Where can I sign up?'

 But have we actually wondered the other side of the coin? I never did. All I saw their pretty plasticlike faces, smiling as they greet fans. But then they'd have a lot of work to do in order to maintain their huge fanbase, right? Tight schedules, making music, acting in videos, trying to please other people. That's pretty stressful stuff for teenagers. With all the things I needa study, I suddenly lost my appetite of popularity. Probably gonna think 'bout it in the future, when I'm bored and there's nothing else to do. As of now, whether I'm popular or not, I'm content with my baby brother getting me a cuppa tea whenever I click my fingers. :)

Random vid!!!:

(Okay, maybe not so random. :D)