Ada (4 alfa), Ingrid, Maria and Alessia (5 alfa) represented Avenor College at the most important public speaking event for children aged 8 to 11 from Bucharest, the Junior Public Speaking Competition, organised by the English Speaking Union at the end of January.

Ingrid describes in the text below how it felt to prepare and be part of this competitions and how all of them learned from it:

It all started when the public speaking competition was announced. At first, I said to myself „why not?”. However, my challenge was the quote that my speech was supposed to be about – „Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” (From The Lorax by Doctor Seuss). I was thinking about it every day, but no ideas came to my mind, so I thought I was not going to participate.

Only one girl from our class wanted to be part of the event and had a great idea. Her name is Maria and she spoke about ecology and nature. I was very impressed with her initiative so I thought it would be cool if I talked about this too.

The problem was that I am not keen on copying other people’s ideas. I decided not to compete in the end. I tried to help my classmate who wanted to try to go to the competition, but we had zero ideas.

 

Finding inspiration

Then, the holiday came and I had a very serious conflict with a friend. I was really frustrated, but now I’m really thankful for that event. You may wonder why. Well, that argument proved to be what I needed for the topic of the competition. I was excited, so I started practicing my speech.

I presented it in front of my class and teacher and, at the beginning, I was quite nervous about it. In the end, it was okay.

My awesome friend had brainstormed original ideas and she was going to participate, too. Me, Maria and Alessia were really glad that we were going to go through this experience together. But the hard times were just about to come.

The three of us and another girl who is one year younger than us, Ada, prepared a lot for this together with our teacher, Miss Cristina Bumboiu. We practiced at school, at home, in front of our class and after classes. This was the very important essence of our journey. When the big day came, we were all together.

 

The stress and excitement of the competition

Maria was not nervous. She was really confident, whereas I and Alessia were sweaty and stressed. Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to talk with Ada about it.

Maria and Ada had been assigned to a room where there were no other Avenor students. I, however, had the luck to have my friend Alessia with me. Just before going in front of the public, I felt like my heart was going to explode. I had my speech with me, and I was the only one from the whole room who was holding the paper. It was a bit embarrassing, I guess.

Alessia presented her brilliant speech about comparing friends with books and then we both talked with Maria. We were still happy, even if we thought we had not been the best.

And now I bet you’re excited to read the happy ending. Well, I might disappoint you: there is a happy ending, but it might not be quite what you were expecting. The judicators gave the prizes to the winners. As for us, we were all offered certificates: me, Alessia, Maria and Ada. If you consider this a sad ending and if you think our journey was pointless, let me say you’re wrong.

 

Learning from the journey

Firstly, the experience was important. We had the chance to see other competitors like us and we had the chance to learn very important things about public speaking. Now, I bet we will be able to speak in public while feeling relaxed and confident.

Secondly, we had fun together. We watched all sorts of children talking about different things and I was impressed when I saw how confidently the eight-year-old children were talking.

Lastly, I want to thank my teacher for helping me learn how to create a speech and for preparing me for the competition, my three friends for joining me in this experience and my parent for all their support.

I hope that after reading the whole story, you now understand why I call this a happy ending.