The Speech

Throughout my life, there have been many moments that I am proud of, however, there are also a few that I am not so proud of.  When I was in 8^th grade, I was running for the Treasurer position for the Student Council of my grade school, Saint Maximilian Kolbe.  I had worked on my speech for a week, knowing that I was running against a few other people so my speech had to be great.  I had read my speech so many times that I had basically memorized it, so that I would not have to look down at my paper and I could look at my audience.  My parents had helped me write a speech that was well done.  I was ready to go.

I walked into the “multipurpose room” of my school on the morning of the speech and felt like I was going to do incredible.  I had a big breakfast so I was energized.  I was very excited because I was as prepared as possible.  All of the people that were voting, the 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grades were all present.  I was a little bit nervous because of the big group that was out there, but I felt like I would still perform well.  After the presidential and vice presidential candidates said their speeches, it was time for the treasurer candidates. 

I went second, and of course the guy that went before me had one of the best speeches I’ve ever seen.  When I say it was a good speech, I mean there were magic tricks, there were jokes, and there was audience interaction.  It was pretty perfect.  So then it was my turn.  I still felt like I could win, so I walked up to the podium.  I started my speech, got through about the first ten words, and then everything went wrong.  For some reason, on that one day, my body decided it would be a good day to crack as much as possible.  This got some smirks from the audience, and it made me feel like a fool.  I couldn’t believe that after all of my preparation, I was just squeaking my way through a speech.  I finally finished and I was still trying to stay positive although I had just sounded like Elmo in front of over 100 people.  Two days later, the results of the election were announced over the public address system.  Of course the magic comedian won.  Talk about rubbing salt in the wounds.