Baby, you’re not alone

This blog is going to be divided into three parts. Part 1, the speech team. Part 2, clubs. Part 3, Spanish and other things.

Moving on to Part 1, the speech team. Last night was my first “official” practice session, where my coach made me give two impromptu speeches. It was absolutely terrifying. I’m not even exaggerating when I say that after the first one, I was practically in tears from anxiety.

Let me explain. Impromptu is an event unlike any I’ve ever done. Basically, each person has seven minutes to pick a topic or quotation from a list of two or three, brainstorm a speech, and then make that speech. This means that to be really good, you have about a minute to a minute and a half to brainstorm, and the rest of the time is for speaking.

Holy. Crap.

My first speech I did on the quote “On the internet, nobody knows your dog.” from Peter Steiner. I basically rambled for five minutes about how the internet is dangerous but is also full of opportunity. Good premise, right? Yeah, it was by far the worst speech I’ve ever given.

The worst part about it, past the rambling and stumbling and slapping myself in the face, was that my coach said it was really good and he had a lot to work with and that I should be competing in the highest level. Obviously, I need to work on rambling, he said, but that was a great start for someone who had never done impromptu before.

The next speech I made was on a quote by Mark Twain. “The right word bay be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”

For this one, I made a reference to “brevity is the soul of wit” from Hamlet (it was a Polonius line), discussed the politics of shutting up and how it could have made a difference while health care was being argued this past year, made some weird metaphor about Obama planting money volcanoes in his garden, and then teetered off with some half-sentences about the Iranian embargoes. Overall it was a much better speech, but it still kind of sucked.

To console me out of my anxiety, my coach let me in on something. Apparently, I was his main recruit. He didn’t so much care whether the other people he was trying to recruit ended up at Pacific or not; I was his main focus. He wanted me for this team really badly. I know it was meant in a “hey, you’re awesome so stop freaking out” way, but in my state of panic, I took it as more of a “I’m really counting on you to be a good choice.” thing. Great.

Moving on to Part 2, clubs. On Thursday there was a club fair where all the clubs had booths and places to sign up for mailing lists. I signed up for the Media Arts club, the English club, and the Radio station. The radio station is what I really want to focus on, so I shall.

There’s a meeting tomorrow which I must attend to decide when I want to have a few hours of my own in the booth. Essentially, I can have a few hours a week to a few hours a month to play whatever music I want and to talk about whatever I want.

I’ve been trying to brainstorm ideas for a radio show, but it’s not working out so well. What am I passionate about? Books, the internet, and some politics. But I’m sure they have a much more experienced political reporter and I don’t think anyone would be particularly interested in me reading bits out of books I like in between borderline mainstream music. And the internet? Hm.

I would love to have your opinion. What should I do a radio show on? More importantly… what should my DJ name be? I’m thinking B-hizzy. (Oh my god no. No no no. I’m not even making this comment a footnote. “Hey Pacific, it’s your favorite DJ, B-Hizzy in the hizzaou!” *gag*)

Part 3, Spanish and other things. So I got my first Spanish quiz back today, and guess what? 8/8! 100%!! But I have a test this Friday that I’m less than confident about. So we’ll see.

As to the other things, I got a letter from Craig that I’m very excited about, and I’m setting aside tomorrow as a writing day. So we’ll see what that yields. I really want to finish Eugenia soon so I can start editing it. I’ll feel better once it’s completed.

Other than that, I hope everyone who reads this blog has a wonderful rest of the week. (Except for you. And you.)