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