DALDAKINO ANECDOTES
Early this morning, as soon as our quick speak wrapped up, my classmates asked our teacher for our scores. She said, she won’t give all; but she did say that she gave a D, two C+’s, a couple B’s, lots of B+’s and only two A’s. At that moment, I doubted my chances of getting an A. My reality television speech had a unique and slick style but I knew other people’s speeches had better content. Our teacher, who was a natural born thriller, asked the class who they think got an A. The class chanted various names; I even heard mine but I just dismissed the thought. My forehead wrinkled as I raised my eyebrow when our professor said that I got an A.
Speaking in front of a crowd is an activity I never envisioned myself to love. Based on experience, I have had a handful of embarrassing moments because of a speech. One was in preschool during UN Week wherein we were each tasked to make a speech on the country we represent. During this time, I was like a robot that uttered memorized phrases, add to that the shaking and stuttering. Another one, which I consider my worst experience in public speaking, was in grade 4 when I ran for general secretary for the student council. As I stood before the audience during the candidates’ forum, I recited the speech which I had used during the whole campaign period. Being new to this, a sense of dismay occurred to me as I felt that my whole speech was senseless. Thus, I stopped speaking and remained idle in stage. A minute or so later, I exited.
People who knew me way back then are witnesses to the drastic changes taking place over the years. I had my turnover during freshman year in high school as I was asked to speak before the then grade 6 pupils. I didn’t know what came into their minds why they had chosen me, yet I didn’t back out. At first, I prepared a written speech but as I saw the crowd, I became hesitant to read it. Instead, I spoke to them impromptu. It never occurred to me then that that was my first extemporaneous speech. Luckily, they loved it. I became a regular speaker in the said forum until I was a senior. From that moment on, I dismissed making a written speech.
As of now, what I consider as the highlight of my speaking career was last year’s extemporaneous speaking contest in high school. As soon as our teacher announced the contestants for the various contests during English Week, I was shocked to know that she picked me for the extemporaneous speech category. At first I didn’t want to join for I wanted to be in the short story writing contest. Besides, I also wanted to defend my title as Word Wizard during the previous year. Moreover, add the burden of being removed from the general information contest for the upcoming UN week celebration as our teacher in Economics’ excuse was that I was already part of the extemporaneous speaking contest. Fury was the only thing I felt at that time. I did not accept the fact that I dropped contests where I had higher stakes of winning for something I do not enjoy – speaking in front of the crowd. I could not explain what happened next. I could not determine whether it was a stroke of genius and/or luck but I won the damn contest. The flames were more fanned when the principal said it was a unanimous decision from the judges who seemed like veterans in public speaking. But what I loved best was a remark from a colleague when he said that winning the contest proved my worth as president. Cheap, the medal may seem, but for me, it’s one of the priceless things I have. What an irony.
Up to this very moment, I could not figure out how this skill had emerged from then poor to now thought-provoking, as people would say. Maybe it’s the pleasure of seeing people clapping to your ideas, people giving standing ovations to your performance or just simply seeing people listening to what you’re saying. All I can say is people don’t call me daldakino for nothing.
PS: And oh by the way, I won the grade 4 elections.
Speaking in front of a crowd is an activity I never envisioned myself to love. Based on experience, I have had a handful of embarrassing moments because of a speech. One was in preschool during UN Week wherein we were each tasked to make a speech on the country we represent. During this time, I was like a robot that uttered memorized phrases, add to that the shaking and stuttering. Another one, which I consider my worst experience in public speaking, was in grade 4 when I ran for general secretary for the student council. As I stood before the audience during the candidates’ forum, I recited the speech which I had used during the whole campaign period. Being new to this, a sense of dismay occurred to me as I felt that my whole speech was senseless. Thus, I stopped speaking and remained idle in stage. A minute or so later, I exited.
People who knew me way back then are witnesses to the drastic changes taking place over the years. I had my turnover during freshman year in high school as I was asked to speak before the then grade 6 pupils. I didn’t know what came into their minds why they had chosen me, yet I didn’t back out. At first, I prepared a written speech but as I saw the crowd, I became hesitant to read it. Instead, I spoke to them impromptu. It never occurred to me then that that was my first extemporaneous speech. Luckily, they loved it. I became a regular speaker in the said forum until I was a senior. From that moment on, I dismissed making a written speech.
As of now, what I consider as the highlight of my speaking career was last year’s extemporaneous speaking contest in high school. As soon as our teacher announced the contestants for the various contests during English Week, I was shocked to know that she picked me for the extemporaneous speech category. At first I didn’t want to join for I wanted to be in the short story writing contest. Besides, I also wanted to defend my title as Word Wizard during the previous year. Moreover, add the burden of being removed from the general information contest for the upcoming UN week celebration as our teacher in Economics’ excuse was that I was already part of the extemporaneous speaking contest. Fury was the only thing I felt at that time. I did not accept the fact that I dropped contests where I had higher stakes of winning for something I do not enjoy – speaking in front of the crowd. I could not explain what happened next. I could not determine whether it was a stroke of genius and/or luck but I won the damn contest. The flames were more fanned when the principal said it was a unanimous decision from the judges who seemed like veterans in public speaking. But what I loved best was a remark from a colleague when he said that winning the contest proved my worth as president. Cheap, the medal may seem, but for me, it’s one of the priceless things I have. What an irony.
Up to this very moment, I could not figure out how this skill had emerged from then poor to now thought-provoking, as people would say. Maybe it’s the pleasure of seeing people clapping to your ideas, people giving standing ovations to your performance or just simply seeing people listening to what you’re saying. All I can say is people don’t call me daldakino for nothing.
PS: And oh by the way, I won the grade 4 elections.
Kram's cut at 10:05 PM |
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home