Here is a recent Accomplishment by

A 9-year-old Junior Friend at Fairfield Friends 

MY BIGGEST CHALLENGE IS GIVING A SPEECH

By

Olivia Denny

INTRODUCTION

My biggest challenge right now is giving this speech.  I have always been afraid of having to give a speech to a  group of people while standing at the front of a room, all by myself, with all eyes on me.  Like right now.  When I first found out that there was going to be an “Oratorical Contest”,  I  thought to myself “Wow, that's pretty scary”, but then as I thought about it some more, I decided that maybe it would be the perfect opportunity for me to overcome one of my biggest fears:  Public Speaking.  So here I am.  Ready to face my challenge.

BODY

To me, a “challenge” is something that is really hard for me to do, something that I won't be able to do the first time, something that will take a lot of work on my part.  But that does not mean that challenges are bad.   I think that challenges are actually really good for you because they are something that you can work towards and if you work hard enough on something, you usually will achieve your goal.  When I achieve my goals, it makes me feel really good about myself. 

Whenever I am faced with a challenge, I handle it by dealing with it as soon as possible.  If I don't confront my challenge quickly, it bothers me and I think about it all the time, even when I'm supposed to be doing something else.  For example, I used to be on the STARZ diving team.  It   is a diving club and they teach you how to do different dives.  I was doing fine with my diving, but then one day my coach showed us a new dive.  It was called an “inward dive”.  You have to stand backwards on the edge of the diving board and jump out towards the water, while tucking your legs in and diving with your head down.  It looked hard and I was afraid to do it.  I would keep trying but I just couldn't make my body do what it was supposed to to.  I was feeling so frustrated!  It bothered me so much that I wanted to quit trying but something inside of me told me that if I just kept going, that I could do it.  And then, one day, I got it!  It felt awesome and I was so proud of myself!  I had accomplished my goal and met my challenge.   

Not long ago, I would have said that my biggest challenge was to get up in front of people and act.  Again, I was afraid of being up in front of people with all eyes on me.  So, I made myself get involved in acting.  I asked my mom to sign me up for an acting class and so far now, I've been in about 4 or 5 small plays and I have found that I love to act! And I don't get so nervous anymore!  If I hadn't tried, I would probably still be afraid to get up on stage and do something that I really like to do.  Maybe once I get through 23 plays like my friend Georgie has, I won't get nervous at all anymore! 

So, you might be wondering why I find getting up and giving a speech so challenging, if I am now able to get up and act in front of people.  Well, the difference is that with acting, you have a script that is already prepared for you, you get to move around on the stage (this is called “blocking”), and there are usually other people acting on the stage with you so you're not up there all by yourself as the center of attention.   

When giving a speech, there are actually several challenges for me. The first challenge  is making myself focus on working on the speech.  I did not realize how much time and preparation I would need to do a good job.  The second challenge for me is taking the time to organize my thoughts and then write the speech out.  The third challenge is making sure that my speech is the right amount of time, especially one that will be at least 4 minutes long.   Another challenge is memorizing the words that I've written.  This takes time and I made a lot of mistakes when practicing.  The big challenge is actually getting up and speaking the words that I've written.  I've found that it is difficult for me to get through speaking a sentence without pausing, or stopping to think about what I'm saying, or using filler words such as  “like” or “um...” or “and...”

 And finally, just standing up doing this is a challenge because it is  scary for me to be up here with all eyes just on me.  I'm not really used to that.   

I am also a worrier.  I worry about the butterflies in my stomach.  I worry about things that I really don't have any control over.  I worry about the unknown.  I worry that I will trip and fall in front of everyone, or maybe I will get so scared that my voice will be so weak that no one will be able to hear me.  So basically I'm worrying about stuff that may or may not happen.   

 I know that feeling some nervousness about giving a speech is natural and healthy.  It shows that you care about doing well.  And I also know that I'm not alone in my fear of Public Speaking.  To help me understand my fear, my mom showed me a list of the top 9 fears that people have.  It was on the Forbes magazine website.  Here is the list:

1. Fear of Bugs, Mice, Snakes and Bats,

2. Fear of Heights

3. Fear of  Water

4. Fear of Public Transportation

5. Fear of Storms

6. Fear of Closed Spaces

7. Fear of Tunnels and Bridges

8. Fear of Crowds

9. Fear of Public Speaking 

This means that more people are more afraid of Public Speaking than they are of sharks, natural disasters, criminals, the dark, or even death.  Making a speech doesn't sound so bad to me compared to these other things!  At least I know that I am  not the only one afraid of Public Speaking.   

I believe that it is better for me to confront this challenge early because there are going to be many times throughout my life when I will have to get up and give a speech or a presentation.  I will have to give talks in school and college.  Maybe I will get to do a speech at church or for a club that I belong to.  Maybe I will have a job in which I will have to do it.  There are many people whose whole job is to give speeches.  If I get a lot of practice giving speeches, I may find that I even really like doing it, just as I found out that I like to act.   

CONCLUSION

Anyone with anything important to say has had to be able to say it to and in front of other people.  A lot of great people like Dr. Martin  Luther King Jr. , the 43 presidents of the United States, and our founding fathers all had to give speeches at least once in their lives!  I entered this Oratorical Contest because it was a personal goal for me to meet the challenge of giving a speech to others and to gain the confidence to be able to do it again.    I hope that some day soon it will be easy for me to write and recite a speech.