By Raegan Densmore
After many long years, (four to be exact), I joined 4-H again this year. I have been in 4-H for a total of seven years, and something I have become very familiar with is the public speaking competition. This year, however, I was introduced to a new competition category, which was the Divert NS speech category. For my speech, there were a few topics to choose from, all regarding the environment. The topic I decided on was “the environmental impacts of fast fashion and how we can promote sustainable fashion and avoid textile waste”. I chose this one because I am greatly into fashion, and it is much more fun to research something you are interested in (at least in my opinion).
To be very honest, I procrastinated with this speech. So much so that I didn’t completely finish writing my speech until two days before my first competition, which was Communications day. Because of this, I only started practicing my speech a day before my competition. I did perform well, however, and to my surprise, there were no other competitors in my category for not only Communications day, but Country Rally as well. As a result, I moved all the way up to the Regional Rally by default. In my previous years in 4-H, I made it to the Regional Rally multiple times. I was quite the competitor as a child, and often I was a duo with my brother as well. Performance arts was something that I enjoyed doing, whether that be public speaking, or even theatre.
When giving a speech, it is important to project your voice, be enthusiastic, however don’t overdo it way too much, and speak at a slower pace so you are easy to understand. Though I consider myself an introvert, I am capable of projecting my voice to a crowd. My downfall is that sometimes I talk too fast when I’m really “in the zone” when presenting my speech, and that is exactly what happened at the Regional Rally this year, I even noticed it as I was presenting. Thankfully, regardless of this, I came in first place and made it the Provincial Rally for my third time ever.
Last weekend, on Saturday was the Provincial Rally. This Rally is different from the previous competitions because we have to perform on an actual stage rather than at the front of a school’s cafeteria or the Noel Church. This area too, was relatively small though. Unfortunately, I made the same mistake as last time and spoke a little too fast. I also was up against some really great competitors, there was one who even goes to school for environmental science, meaning they had a lot more knowledge about environmental issues than me, regardless of how much I researched.
In the end, I didn’t win the Provincial Rally, however it was a great run this year for my first time back in a little over four years. Public speaking, though it is nerve wracking, can be quite fun, and is an extremely useful skill to have in life. I encourage anyone to try it at least once, just to have the experience. Personally, I hope to keep pursuing performance arts in my future. After all, this year reminded me just how fun it can be.
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