I didn’t do as well as I hoped in the Tall Tales contest. I got either 4th, 5th, or 6th place. The awards only went up to third.
I’m disappointed I didn’t even place, and to be honest, I allowed myself a few minutes to feel bad about all the work I put in for what was, at first glance, so little payoff.
But then I switched gears and decided to give myself a thoughtful evaluation that would include not only things to improve, but things I should give myself credit for.
Here’s what I came up with:
1. In hindsight it was pretty stupid of me to not have even glanced at the judging criteria before giving the speech. I should have known going in EXACTLY what they were looking for. Can you imagine a gymnast preparing an entire floor routine without knowing she’ll be judged on the difficulty of her flips? Man, that was dumb.
2. Hearing the other speakers’ stories, it occurred to me that mine was probably more of a fantasy story than a true tall tale. Another rookie mistake. One must follow the basic directions!
3. I don’t know how this played in the scoring, but the top three speakers all used accents (two southern, one French). I need to look into that.
4. I didn’t use my notes one bit. Being able to do that was an accomplishment for me and tells me that if I properly prepare, I CAN succeed under pressure.
5. Competition or not, I had a lot of fun practicing performing in front of everyone. I still get the feeling that I’m out of my head whenever I give a speech, but that can only improve with practice. Today I had the chance to practice.
6. I really did do my very best. I could have chosen not to compete at all and stayed completely safe in the audience. I’m proud of myself for at least accepting the challenge.
I’m sure there’s more, but those are the ones that come to the top of my head.
My advice to those who want to enter a speaking competition? Do it. Even though there was only one first place certificate, I still feel like a winner. (Okay, I don’t feel that good yet, but if I say it doesn’t that make it so?)
As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” True dat.
I am so bummed I could not be there to hear these amazing stories. Accent huh? That’s something that would have never occurred to me. How… interesting?
Guess I should have seen it for that reason alone.
Meryl Streep comes to mind