I was listed. The names popped up on the blown up screen, storytelling, Discussion, Humourous, and plenty more. Creative Expression popped up in the bolded purple letters and there rested my name along with the top finalist of the category. It was now time, for me to show that this freshmen can compete against the seniors, fresh meat to the big dogs.

As a freshmen I have been considering my future and preparing for college, so scholarships were clearly the apple to my eye. Taking into consideration I looked into possible activities that wouldn’t be too much trouble or take up time for my other passion sports. Speech, an activity where you dress like a professional speaker and inform a crowd, little known that it was far more. I took advantage of the opportunity to sign up for the team and let the coaches choose a category that would lead me to the most success. As the season led on I truly realized how swell our own speech team is, usually taking the competition by a storm, but at this time I still simply just looked for success and at times, nothing more.

As I sat in the school IMC till usual six in the afternoon just scribbling down new ideas and angles of how to give my story its own small life. Sitting at the high stooled table, I often wondered why I was here spending my time writing a speech when I could be preparing for the upcoming track season or could be sitting at home instead of the school, the thought would just stroll past my mind. The season led on, and the days to the first tournament counted down, the days got lower but the people never did; I interacted with new speakers and saw new sides from people I have never talked to. New smiles and new laughs to be heard as the speech season started to form, also forming a new me. The countdown continued.

The day has came where people would dress up in fancy pencil skirts and patterned ties. dou speakers walked in together with a skip and the informative category drag around pesky visual stands. The time has arrived, as every room door shut and all categories began to present, my first speech meet had me feeling more than just butterflies. A character pop here and there, a new voice for every character portrayed. The day went by fast, sitting in a chair for hours on hours now to wait upon the results, my first speech meet placing me 4th out of 9 on the novice level. Since the meet I have expanded the speech finding new humor to add and new pops to show, every meet getting me higher and higher usually placing 2nd, now 1st. On the way to yet another meet at Red Wing, my mind waiting to be hit with the fact I will now be participating varsity. The bus halted to a stop in front of the school, the team getting off as a herd leaving the competition’s whispers behind our backs. The time has come where the categories would return to their respective rooms and commence the battle of speeches, soon my turn was up presenting the best I had for all three rounds. Time has come for the projector to show the finalists for each category and there lied my name along with the other top finalists.

As finals went on, waiting in my seat to present the satisfaction of speech finally hit; this is fun. Sitting in the seat I truly realized this was supposed to be more for fun than anything else. Presenting in front of a big crowd was not my favorite, but since speech I have opened myself to new activities for the fun of trying something new. Even placing 6th out of 26 made my day, one day I wouldn’t trade the world for.