Last November, I won my
local heats along with one other girl (Emer Shine) and advanced to the Regional
Finals (though they should really be called Semifinals, I think) in Athlone.
You can read the post where I mention the local heats here.
I got a lift off
Adrienne (sp?) from the local Soroptimists club. We met at 10.45 at a local
shopping centre, and the teacher going with me sat in the back with Adrienne
and her husband, a doctor, in front. The drive took forever, and I spent it
writing my speech out onto index cards, which I’d been too lazy to do the night
before.
Then I contemplated starting my English essay but got distracted
reading the
textbook, so I only had time to write one of my Fiverr pieces
before we got there.
The hotel was nice,
though it did have that old Irish hotel air where it’s all dark and polished
wood and carpets. Not a fan of the smoky atmosphere (not literal smoke, but it
resembled a bar in places, most of all the actual bar). We were over an hour
early, so we went and I got a BLT and hot chocolate in the bar, paid for by my
school (I owe them so much).
Being me, I did of
course lose my index cards. We went on a merry goose chase looking for them,
but the doctor found them eventually exactly where I thought I left it (the
speaking room – yes, I had looked there, but I hadn’t seen them).
Then we had an
introduction and then the speeches started. I was third to go up, and there was
one other girl doing my topic (D, in the Democracy section; about gender quotas
in business and politics). The most popular topic was A, based on a quote from
Nelson Mandela about freedom.
We all had to speak for
between four and six minutes. My prepared speech went fine, no hiccups, and I
think I got some laughter at points. I was kinda awed by the fifth girl – her
speech and charisma just seemed amazing. She was from the girl next to me’s
school. The girl next to me, oh god can I remember her name, was nice. Girl on
the other side was loud. Girl from my local round, Emer, was pretty cool, with
very energetic hair.
The sixth girl, though,
Schmebecca Schmoss, really annoyed me (and not just because she was doing my
topic and taking the opposite side). She went on with this prattle about “my
friend Jen (short for gender quotas)” and it was persuasive but just so puerile
and stupid I genuinely wanted to puke as the speech went on. She has another
friend, named “Fem” (short for feminism) and just ugh. Are we in Junior Infants
here?
Everyone had already got
through their local rounds and this was the final for quarter of the country,
so we were all good, I think. Some people didn’t really have many points, but a
lot of them came out from behind the podium and engaged the audience a lot. I
hadn’t known we were supposed to do that so kay.
Then it was time for the
impromptu round, which I’d been dreading. We were brought into one of the hotel
rooms and girls were led out individually and given the topic. It was quite a
nice one, I must admit: “Operation Transformation”.
Long story short, I was
at least able to talk for the requisite two minutes (after two minutes of
preparation) and didn’t dry up. My conclusion was awful (non-existent – well,
it was there, but I was so flustered I forgot to say it) and I just repeated
the last line, but at least I passed the two minutes.
I had a feeling Schmoss
would win just on sheer power of irritation, but I didn’t know who else would.
I thought maybe the fifth girl. We had lunch and then came back for speeches,
then the prizes were announced. Schmoss won (ugh) but so did Ciara Rigney,
which we didn’t predict. The content of her speech was pretty disjointed but
she spoke well and had good charisma. She now has the National Finals of this
Competition on March 7th and the Finals of another public speaking competition
the day after, which is interesting.
I meant to add the other
girls on Facebook but I can’t really be bothered now. I got a hot chocolate
before we left then. I was sad I missed a whole day at Dad’s. We then drove
back (I had charged my laptop halfway in the hotel) for two hours. I had a
splitting headache and wouldn’t take the tablet so I tried to do my
History/English essays but didn’t succeed. Eventually I just fell asleep.
Pretty meh day. Ciarán
was nice afterwards though, and I went to bed really early because of the
headache.
We got €15 iTunes
vouchers, and since I don’t use iTunes I just gave mine to Kate during French
today on a whim.
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