Feelings before the speech
I remember seeing the posting about the Life in a Bag speech we were to give when i first started the class. I figured it would be pretty easy. No one knows me better than I do and during my recruiter course we had to give a brief "Army story." When I tried to get back into the course a couple days later so that I could start preparing what I would say about whatever items I chose there was a snafu with my financial aid and I had been dropped from the course by JJC registrars for nonpayment. Luckily I was able to get re-registered in the class an hour before we were to give the speech and I have a teacher who was gracious enough to print me a copy of the topic and what I needed for the speech. I ran home, gathered the items I had been thinking about bringing; iPod Shuffle, Subaru hat, wedding picture, Airborne wings, and my Road ID. These would explain myself pretty well and show what my interests are.
Feelings during the speech:
I'm not generally a nervous person and having been prepared to talk about my "Army story" at a moments notice I felt that things would go smoothly, and they did. I'm used to public speaking so I know what to do during a speech. Make eye contact, engage your audience, don't speak too quickly, etc.. I knew what order I wanted to take things out of my bag and I stuck to that order.
Feelings after the speech:
I think that overall the speech went well, even without any real preparation. I had been thinking throughout the day on what I was going to talk about and what facets of my life I wanted to share. If I were to do this again I would probably do it the same way, the only thing I would change is that I would get to class on time so I could enjoy the other speakers as well. For my future speeches I will definitely be creating an outline so that I can manage the flow of where my speech goes.
Overall I enjoyed the speech and I look forward to speaking again!
