Today I am going to write about some people at Durand School that had given me or my team speeches this past week. The first speech was given by my volleyball coach to my cheer team. The other speech or conversation that I had was between the cheerleading team and our athletic director. Both speeches were unique in their own way. Both were very serious. I even had to use my speech skills that I learned in class for one of them.

The first speech I was given was during the regional championship volleyball game on October 31st. During timeouts, our coach would come over to us and tell us what we were doing wrong and what we needed to do to fix it. We had won the first match, so there wasn’t much to talk about during that game. The second match was very close, but we ended up losing. After we lost that match, our coach came over to us and got us all going so that we wouldn’t get down on ourselves. She had used a lot of curse words, but that just got us even more pumped about our last game. She got all of us going by giving just a short one minute speech. The final game was not good. The coach for the other team did not play fair. We ended up losing in a close match. Our coach talked to us again in the locker room and that speech made every single member of our team cry. It’s amazing how a speech can make a person feel.

The other speech that I had to give was to our athletic director about who was going to be hired as our cheerleading coach. The whole cheer team and I went to talk to him. I had a list of main points and gave a very compelling speech. I think I might have persuaded him to go with what I think is the better option, and I might have gotten him to agree to get us new uniforms as well. I tried my best to give a “mini” persuasive speech and I think it may have worked.

This week was full of speeches for me. Not only were we giving speeches during class, but I also had a few of speeches given outside of class. There were more speeches that I heard or gave this week, but in order to write about them, it would probably end up being a 12 page essay.

The self introduction speech was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I thought that I would be struggling to meet the time requirement. I thought that I would be too nervous to speak, but I did. I went up and gave a speech about myself. At times, I thought I messed up, but I just kept rolling with it. I was impressed with myself because I did not do as bad as I thought I would do. Overall, I think that I did pretty well for my first speech.

There is always room for improvement, but I feel I did a lot of things well in this speech. I made strong eye contact throughout my speech. I thought I would be mumbling and looking down at my notecard the whole time, but I proved myself wrong. I had a pretty clear voice and was not speaking too fast or too slow. I was not mumbling at all, which I had been doing while practicing my speech. I feel like I had strong main points and supporting evidence as well.

There was a lot I could have improved upon with my speech. I did cross my feet a few times, and I am glad I did not pass out. I think that the movement from one point to the next did throw me off a little bit. I also played with my hair a lot. I tend to do this when I am nervous. I used a few “ums” here and there because I had forgotten what I wanted to talk about. I definitely could have had a better introduction. I practiced it one way and then blanked when I got up to deliver it. If I practiced it a little more, I might not have forgotten what I was going to say. 

There are lots of steps I could take to improve my next speech. I plan on practicing in a mirror this time. I feel like I would be able to catch myself slouching, crossing my legs, or playing with my hair. I also might write my speech a few different ways so I can see which one sounds the best. The night before my speech, I am going to practice 100 times. Maybe not exactly 100, but I feel I need to practice a lot more than I did for my self introduction speech. 

I feel like I deserve a B for this speech. I do not believe I did well enough to deserve an A. I used a lot of “ums” and played with my hair quite a bit. My introduction was not great and neither was my language. I feel like I did well, but I did not ace my speech. There were speakers I felt did a lot better than I did, but I still feel my speech was good. I did not go over or under the time limit. I do feel my organization and supporting materials were good. Overall, I believe I gave a good speech and deserve a B. 

Some people in this world are so unbelievable. People lie, cheat, commit crimes, and are just plain rude. I watched a guy get yelled at my his girlfriend the other day for asking another girl how her day went. Why do people get mad at others for being decent human beings with a little compassion? Yes, there could have been something else going on that I did not know about, but it doesn’t mean I am wrong. A conversation can still have the same meaning in a different place that it occurs. It could also have the same meaning if a different tone was used. Maybe it would even convey the message more accurately in a different tone.

Messages can be revived or given multiple different ways. The girl screaming at her boyfriend could have easily given the same message in a quieter tone or in a private place, but this girl decided that screaming in the middle of Walmart was the best option.  Personally, I would have waited until I got to the car. It was like she was giving a speech to 100 people and did not have a microphone. That was how loud this girl was. The boy was just sitting there taking it all in. You could tell by the feedback that he was giving that he thought his girlfriend was overreacting. 

Speech can be perceived in multiple different ways. Some people intentionally have a meaning they are trying to convey based upon their tone and body language, and some people unintentionally have a different meaning. The guy in the previous scenario might have been trying to listen to the girl and might have cared for what she had to say, but it did not seem like he did based on his body language. He was slouching and nodding his head and looking off into the distance. That does not seem like a person who is paying attention to a conversation. Maybe that is just his personality and who he is, but I do not think he cared about getting yelled at at all. Usually, when a person is engaged in a conversation, they are making eye contact and are not aimlessly looking around.  

Speech is a part of my everyday life. I am involved in a lot of extracurricular activities that require communication in one form or another. I also have to do a lot of speaking with my job. I have paid more attention to how I speak and what changes I make in my speech depending on who I am talking to since the start of speech class. I am not going to talk to my professors the same way I talk to my friends. I use quite a bit more slang when speaking to my friends. I have always been afraid of public speaking, but I am not as afraid since taking a speech class back in high school. 

I am actively involved in sports at my school. The three sports I play are volleyball, cheerleading, and track. I have to communicate with my cheerleading team through Snapchat about what to wear on game days and what times we have to be places. Since I am the captain, I do most of the sending and my teammates do most of the listening part of the communication process. We have team discussions about what bows we want to wear and what days we can host team dinners. I do have to give speeches to them and I never really thought of them as speeches. I get up in front of them and inform them about what we plan on doing for practice for the week. 

My friends and I all speak differently. We have some similarities, but mostly differences. I am the kind of person to use “y’all” and my friends think I am weird for it. My grandmother lived in Mississippi and I would spend my summers with her. I picked up on some southern slang and continue to use it everyday. I don’t realize when I use it either. I also shift my language when talking to people in higher authority. I don’t use any slang when talking to older people, professors, and my bosses. They might not understand what certain slang terms mean. 

Texting is another platform that my friends and I use. It is often difficult to understand what my grandparents or parents are trying to say. It took awhile for me to teach my grandma that “LOL” mean “Laugh Out Loud” and not “Lots Of Love”. My friends know what I am talking about when I say “COABMF”, while my mother has no idea what that means (It stands for “Come Over And Bring Me  Food”). I’m just kidding about that one, but I really think I should start using it. I never realized how much my speech changes depending on the person without me even realizing it.