I had to write a memoir for my English class and I thought, well why not post it here on my blog, this is of course only the draft.
As I stood at the podium, ready to give my speech to seven hundred or so of my closest friends, I thought back to what had led me to that point, to the event that had started it all. It was a cool autumn day in November of ’07 when I had decided to apply for the position of astronaut in Project SPARC (a program at many school dedicated to performing a couple of simulated NASA space flights every year). I had mostly made the decision to apply for the position out of fun (being an astronaut meant that I would get to miss a whole day of classes); of course, I knew my chances were slim. I was only a sophomore at this point and all of the juniors and seniors got preference when it came to choosing who the astronauts would be. Just a few short days after turning in my application for the position, I was called into the office of our program director. While I half expected to simply hear that I was not chosen for the position of astronaut and that I should try again next year, it took the director all of five seconds to decimate the idea of being an astronaut at all. She told me that I could not be an astronaut this year, as too many juniors and seniors had applied for the spot, but the position of spokesperson was open, and she thought that I would be perfect for it (she had seen me speak previously at National Academic League competitions). As soon as I realized that the position of spokesperson also meant that I could miss my whole day of classes, I accepted without hesitation and that’s how it all began.
Now before I took this position, I was a fairly shy person, I would rarely say more than I had to, and had a fairly small group of (very good) friends. Now here I was, about to work my first appearance as spokesperson after weeks of hard work and practice (by heard work and practice, I mean going over the basic outline of the flight for about 15 minutes total). I got up in front of the class that had come down to see the flight, I was dressed in my best dress clothes (flights were always formal after all), and I started to speak, a bit shaky at first, I fumbled with a few words, but then suddenly I began to get the sense of it and I went through all of the facts and figures and taking them on the tour of the rest of the facilities. It was at the exact moment that the class was leaving after they had all thanked me for the wonderful tour that I began my love with public speaking.
From that point onwards, I continuously expanded my job as spokesperson farther and farther; I had decided that two simulated flights a year was not enough exercise for my public speaking skills, public speaking quickly became an addiction to me. I began volunteering to work at the high school fair to tell prospective students about the merits of choosing our school’s magnet program; this became a tradition which I would continue for the rest of my years in high school. In the three years that I worked the high school fairs I must easily have met over a thousand people, many of whom I helped to convince to come to my high school, some of whom I still know to this day. Being a spokesperson had given me a whole new lease on life, I now had the courage to run for junior vice president of our National Honor Society, and even better still, I had the skill to write the speech that led to my victory. My luck would not end either as I was soon approached to write and present an advertisement for the robotics competition, by the time I was done, our presentation placed third in the state and got us to nationals in Auburn, Alabama.
By the time I reached my senior year, I was one of the most recognizable faces in my school, by both staff and student alike. The staff knew me from my volunteer work promoting the school, and many of the younger students knew me as I had been the one to convince them to pick my high school. It was easily one of the best times in my life. I had been elected to the position of President in our National Honor Society, and I now held the titles of President and manager of the computers group in SPARC in addition to my title as spokesperson. It was during this year that I got to personally induct the newest members of our National Honor Society, many of whom I had known for years, and I could not have been prouder of them. By April, I could feel my time as spokesperson coming close to its end, one of the groups in SPARC had decided to build me my own personal podium to use at my last SPARC flight simulation. I think that it is perhaps the greatest podium in all of existence, using it gave me a sense of power and control that I had never before known. The flight simulation went off without a hitch, and we celebrated afterword, we always celebrated at the end of our last flight simulation of the year in honor of those of us who would be graduating, but it had never affected me as much as it had this year, I could feel the end, that was it, my spokesperson days were all over. Or so I thought.
Late in May I was called into the principal’s office, she told me that I was salutatorian of our graduating class, and that I would get to make a speech at the ceremony. I quickly began work on the speech; I based it upon a favorite quote of mine, the speech of course had to be approved, after which I added a few items to the version that I would actually deliver. Then almost out of nowhere, there I was standing at the podium, ready to give my speech to seven hundred or so of my closest friends, I thought of how much I had changed from that shy timid young man that I had been four years prior, how my role as spokesperson helped me gain self confidence, how it led to so many chance meetings which in turn became some of the best friendships of my life, and how it made me who I am today. I then gave my speech, which I can honestly say was the best speech I had ever written, which concluded with seven hundred of my closest friends and their families cheering like crazy.
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