As I sit on my futon in my tiny dorm room, procrastinating another project by stalking myself on YouTube, I find myself watching old videos of a girl who looks a lot like me, in a blazer and heels performing some weird one women show on screen. Who is this girl??? That is exactly the question I would be asking myself if I hadn't joined my high school speech team about 5 and half years ago.

Four years ago, when I followed my friends into room A402 on my first day as a high school freshmen, I had no idea what in the world I was getting myself into. These people talked to walls...WALLS. What in the world was happening?! Little did I know I was going to fall absolutely in love with the speech world.

For those of you who may not know, Oral interpretation is all about bringing literature to life. You can perform a play, a novel, poetry or even a movie script. There are many different categories but (when I was in the activity) the four main stage categories are Duo, Humor, Drama and Original Oratory. My first day of class I had no idea what to expect. Turns out, speech is so much more then getting up in the front of an audience and talking. It’s acting. It’s professionalism. Its competition. It’s discipline.

Speech is a crazy world wind of stories, voices, creativity and competition. I was lucky to have gone through such a legendary program. Sioux Falls Lincoln High School has a high reputation. We love what we do and we work hard to achieve it. Boy do we work hard. I have never spent so much time and energy on attempting to say one line of text over and over again until I got it just right. Speech taught me how to work hard and how to be proud of the hard work.

It also taught me how to be respectful and professional. Picture this: hundreds of high school students strutting around in suits and heels. It was so cool. You learn how to be a good audience member and use your manners in a polite and friendly way. Not only are you being taught about the professional world, you're learning how to take criticism.

No matter what steps you take in your life, you’re going to come across someone who is going to judge you. In speech, you are putting yourself out there to be judged and ranked against other competitors. It is vital to learn how to take the criticism given to you and know that it meant to make you better.

I think my favorite thing about my time as a speech nerd was the people. My teammates and coaches are the most open armed, kind, powerful, confident and vulnerable people I have ever met. The speech community is an amazing place full of some of the best and brightest people I have ever met. They are my people and my best friends. Having the opportunity to compete and travel with all of my bffs was nothing shy of a blessing. Thanks for letting me laugh, cry and be weird with you. You all know who you are <3

Excellence is not an act, but a habit; we are what we repeatedly do.
-Aristotle

I competed in HI (humorous interpretation) all four years of my speech career and I love that category to death. Junior year I qualified in HI to nationals in Kansas City. I ended up making it all the way to octo-finals. I never thought I would EVER get to go to nationals let alone make it to the top 30! I qualified in humor again the following year and got to travel to Dallas, TX. This activity gave me the confidence to become the leader and person I am today.

When you are up at the front of that classroom, in front of your team mates, competition and strangers, there is absolutely nothing more exhilarating or rewarding then using your voice to tell a story that needs to be told. Getting a laugh every once in awhile is pretty nice too. If you have even the slightest interest in the activity...try it. It may change your life.

Thank you speech world! You're the best.