Recently, I wrapped up my time doing speech at North, and with few other blog topics in mind, I’m going to take the chance to talk about my speech experience this year.
Now I wrote a whole summary for my first three years of speech, and only after like 800 words did I realize it was way too long, so I’m gonna do a TL:DR. Freshman year: I was bad. Sophomore year: It was COVID and I did really bad. Junior year: I became a sweaty tryhard and I still did bad.
So with that flawless contextualization of my speech career established, let us move into my senior year. This year, I was a bum. I was focusing more on college apps, and frankly, I didn’t have any motivation to do speech given my past history of results (or lack thereof). I just stuck with impromptu, my primary event, and I didn’t even have anything ready until a week or two out from the first tournament. However, while I would have been ok with just performing at my usual level and doing badly, I started to absolutely toss my preliminary rounds in the early season. I would forget and freeze and lose to people that, even if I was washed, I should not have been ranking below. So that lit the fire back up in me to prove that I wasn’t complete trash and to put all my years of experience into play to at least achieve something in the twilight of my career. But of course, that just set me up for more disappointment when I kept falling short again and again, and thus I reverted straight back to my bum senior mindset.
POV: You get Frozen like Elsa in your prelims
Eventually, the end of the season came once more. I was tired of the whole speech process in general: waking up too early on a Saturday, competing, getting disappointed when I didn’t make finals, going home tired, a little depressed, and with a lot of homework to catch up on. While I did still enjoy the company of all my speech friends this year, I was ready to be done by the time January hit, but I couldn’t rest just yet. Now, at the end of every regular season comes the state series for speech, which you can think of as the post season of the NFL. Additionally each school can only send one person per event to compete at state series, and given that I was the most senior member in impromptu, it was back to waking up early again for me.
State is split in 3 parts: regionals, sectionals, and state, one tournament a week, each progressing in difficulty. The past two years, I had been eliminated at regionals (the earliest stage of course), and this year, I wasn’t expecting anything different. However, during the actual regional tournament, I felt that I could definitely move to the next stage given the level of competition, and that confidence carried me to the final round. Yet, tragedy struck as in that final round, I had one of the worst performances of my life, and I walked out so angry with myself. I was completely unable to accept that my final speech would be utter garbage and that my whole journey, a never ending story of failure, would end in complete shambles. But thankfully, that would not be my fate. Somehow, I managed to tie for 4th in finals, and because the ranks 1-4 from regionals moved onto sectionals. So, with the power of straight dumb luck, I moved on.
The judges watching me fumble my speech
Going into Sectionals, I needed to clean up my act and make sure that I took full advantage of the chance that managed to fall onto my lap. This was greatly aided by Bill (the guy who won state last year in impromptu and who graduated from North just last year) calling me up and handing me his super secret recipe for victory which I can’t explain because this post is getting too long, and into sectionals I went. For more context, the sectional that North is part of (most likely) the most competitive sectional in the entire state, and people who advance from the sectional generally make it into the finals for state. Thus, I went in with the mindset that I would be ok not even making it into the final round because chances were that I wouldn’t. I just wanted to give good speeches and retire proud of my performance. Strangely, I didn’t feel very nervous either. I was just happy to be there and compete, and after my last preliminary round, I had made peace with being done with speech. Yet, by some mythical force, I made it into the final round, and I definitely thought I would not do well considering how stacked the competition was. So once again, I just decided to enjoy myself. I spun around in the chairs in the waiting room that the tournament had us wait in before going to speak, and being last, I had plenty of time to be trapped with my thoughts. After being called in to speak, I walked into that final round with no expectations, spewed what I thought would definitely be my final speech, and went to go wait for awards.
Now the people running the tournament definitely planned for awards to be the most nerve racking thing ever, because they went so slowly and announced every finalist’s rank name, and school, literally exposing everyone for how close/far they were from making it to state. So when impromptu 6th and 5th place came up (only 6 people make it to finals), and miraculously, I didn’t hear myself at all, my relief was short lived when the all important 4th place. 4th place is super scary for everyone, because only top 3 from each sectional makes it to state. So when I heard the announcer say “In 4th place, from Naperville” and I thought that my journey was finally over. But as it turns out, the announcer said Naperville Central and not North, and so up I went to the stage, completely bamboozled as to how I had managed to make it to state.
State was a much different and more anti-climatic experience. I got on the bus, I hung out with the people from Naperville Central, competed, failed (of course), and went home. However, I will note that in the second (and final) preliminary round, I felt a very odd sense of calmness. It wasn’t like other rounds in my career or even in sectionals, I just felt very grounded and in control. Now, while I didn’t make it into the finals (apparently I was 7th and state only takes top 6 for finals so that’s fun), I managed to go home happy that I performed well in my final speech, and even more happy that I was finally done.
Now, if I were to go back in time and tell freshmen year me whether I thought speech was worth it, I would immediately think of all the early mornings I had to wake up on, the salty taste of failure that I became too familiar with, the amount of time and effort I sunk into speech and the pitiful amount of rewards that speech yielded out for me. But then, I would remember all the people who I met along the way, the fun conversations and relationships I made because of speech, how tough I have become and how much I’ve grown as a person all because of speech. Then I would turn to little freshmen me, and give the most definitive answer of my life.
No.
Hi Alec, I found your blog to be really interesting. I have to preface this by saying that I am really bad at public speaking and have always despised it, so I have the utmost respect for anyone that does speech or debate, especially the impromptu events. I remember that you were my partner for the 8th grade debate and in every school project we’ve done together you have always been the best speaker in the group, so I was surprised to learn that you didn’t enjoy speech. Still, it was interesting to read about your speech journey and the narrative style you employed made me more interested in a speech competition than I ever thought I would be. Some questions I still have are: What was your impromptu prompt? And do you know the basic topic beforehand or is it completely random what you have to talk about? Lastly, are you given any time to draft an argument or do you have to jump right into it? Overall, you wrote a really funny and interesting blog post and even if you wouldn’t do it again, I’m happy that you were able to go out on a high note!
Hey Alec!
I really enjoyed reading your blog post! Speech is not an activity at North that I am familiar with so it was really interesting to read about your experience with it. I appreciate how you made sure to mention the highs and the (seemingly) many lows. I think when people do an activity for four years of high school, they’re bound to only talk about how much they loved it or the highlights, but your perspective was much more well-rounded and realistic. I can tell that, despite any frustrations you experienced, your senior year speech season was generally rewarding and I commend you for your perseverance. To be honest, I do not understand the specifics of a speech competition, but doing an impromptu speech sounds like my worst nightmare, so even if you think you performed poorly, you did something I think a lot of people would be terrified to do at all. I also respect your honesty. I can tell that there were aspects of speech you may have enjoyed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the entire experience was one you would want to repeat. Overall great post! It was great to read about an experience I’m not familiar with.
Hey Alec,
I enjoyed your blog! Your multimedia content was honestly super funny. I heard a bit about speech from our esteemed Bill Zheng (the Merry tutor Co-president I will aspire to be but never actually be).
Your speech career and my DECA career shared a lot of similarities, that’s for sure. Like you, I was really, really bad my first 2 years. Except my DECA story arc ended a lot earlier than your speech did (does?) – after State last year you know what happened.
Back to your blog! The speech cycle does sound super tiring: I know for SciOly (back when I still did it) waking up at 7 on weekends to do science was pretty not fun. You can ask Ben: I think he was there the time that I forgot we had a competition and slept in for half of my literal best event (Forensics) and left a poor freshman to scrounge up points (like me on ELA tests).
Nonetheless I applaud your speech commitment: especially senior year. Sectionals award ceremony legit sounds like DECA’s – waiting for people an entire ballroom away from the stage to walk up for a medal was quite an ordeal. Glad you placed for State!
Loved the ending: honestly half the clubs I do now if I had to do them again I definitely wouldn’t do.
-Max
Hi Alec, I find your blog on speech competitions straightforward and I appreciate your honesty. While I know at the end of the blog you mention “no” to doing speech competitions, I feel that it is impressive that you never gave up. Even as a senior, you talked to others and you kept going and going until you made it to state. I think it is impressive that you made it and you should be proud of your accomplishment. I know that it might have been frustrating spending relentless hours on preparing the speeches, but I agree that those priceless moments are memorable. Even though at the end you state that you would tell your freshman self “no”, I believe that you should tell them “yes” due to your experiences that you learned from. I think the fact that you continued speech competitions despite constant disappointments speaks to your commitment and hard work. I know that you mentioned that your blog is long, but I am interested in this “secret recipe” for speeches that you learned before making it to state. I think that even though the pattern of your speech competitions seem to be similar each year, I was pleased to see that senior year transformed everything.
Loved this post and the multimedia LOL
Alec,
To start out, I love the use of the memes. The Thanos “what was he cooking one” genuinely made me laugh for so long (way too long). I’ve heard from other people (a.k.a Ben) about how hard you work for speech, and it’s really impressive. Ben told me about how you just talk to yourself in your room (which I do think is kinda funny) but it’s insane how much effort you put into it. I thought you did all that because you loved speech, but I might’ve been wrong.
I think your blog is relatable in the sense that you go through something terrible that blows up your world and makes you regret and hate everything (a.k.a middle school for me), but you also grow a lot and mature. Would I go back to middle school? Never. Am I glad that I learned a lot and grew as a person? Yes. I think that’s kind of the same way you feel about speech, which feels fitting with the Captain America meme at the end. I’m happy that you managed to qualify though and it’s indicative that your hard work paid off!
Yo wassup Alec! I’ve heard a lot about Speech from you and it wasn’t all good so I’m looking forward to seeing what you have to say about it. Your Speech experience was kind of like my DECA experience. Freshman year, I didn’t qualify for state. Sophomore year, I didn’t even qualify for whatever competition we had during covid. However, junior year I did participate in nationals, with you in fact, and I don’t know what you think about it in hindsight but I’d say it was an enjoyable experience. Although senior year, back to not even qualifying for sectionals due to some unfortunate circumstances. I was and still am a bum this year, as if I had senioritis from the start of the year. However, the difference is that it wasn’t because I was focusing on college apps in which I should’ve spent more time on. It’s completely understandable that you didn’t have any expectations for Speech going into this year but I’d say it’s fine as long as you tried your best with what you had. I would hate having to spend my Saturday losing a competition.
Hi Alec, reading your blog was interesting, especially because you talked about speech to our group before class. I didn’t know that speech team had such a big time commitment, and that there was some form of competition every week. That level of commitment is like being an athlete! Now, I understand how exciting it can be to make it to the top levels of competition, so I found it surprising that you were mostly indifferent about it, and even calm. But of course, I’m only saying this because I do math team, and my brain is only filled with linearly independent vector thoughts, so it would make sense that I would want to stay competitive in a math team club. However, I do find your level of determination admirable; I don’t think many can do something that they don’t think is worth it for that long, and still perform at an extremely high level. And I’m sure down the line somewhere, these skills will be an immense asset for you. I mean, your part of our group presentation was perfect, and I’m sure you’ll have less stage fright along with it. Great job on your season, and I hope you can use your skills to achieve your goals!
Hi Alec! I am kind of stalking your blog. I can relate to you on a spiritual level because I did debate freshman, sophomore, and junior year. I used to win all the time in freshman year and the first tournament of sophomore year, but when covid started, I began to decline. Like you, I felt salty when I lost at competitions and had a lot of homework to catch up on. The worst part is, I was sick and worked so hard and won 4th place at National Speech and Debate Qualifiers and then the next week when I went to IHSA State, I did not even make it out of prelims. I thought the judging was totally unfair though, because there were other people that should have broke but did not. This year, they finally investigated because I was super upset still about the tournament, and it turns out I got first place and a Naperville Central judge cheated me out because central kids took my research and passed it off as their own and then I made one of his students sit down after questioning me. So yeah. My mental health totally deteriorated after I lost and one of my teamates was SUPER mean to me about it. I can’t even type out what she said on the school account. But anyways, I learned to accept defeat and focus on bettering myself, and it bulked up my college essay. I love the last paragraph of your essay. It is reflective yet funny. I am sure you would actually say yes to doing speech again if you started all over. I would say yes to doing debate too. I am proud of you for making it into Finals for speech. Some of my best memories are the bus ride home with my teammates and the kids at central. I remember coming home from the Illinois Congressional Debate Association (ICDA) State in freshman year, which Jacob Cao and William Tong sitting behind me, and William calling his mom about the competition saying he got 3rd place, and me yelling “nihao ayi.” Anyways some of the debate kids are wild at the back of the bus after a competition and I love the vibes. Anyways, I wrote too much here at it’s not even 7 am. Sounds like a Taylor Swift song. Thanks for writing such a relatable, funny, and inspiring blog!