This is going to be a stupid-busy week... Why do teachers insist on calling every single test a "midterm"? And why do teachers think their students will like them when they say "Oh, and by the way, we're going to have a midterm in two days, so be ready." Waiiiit, that wasn't on a the syllabus!
And then there's Latin, in which I only just received a letter in the mail saying "Oh, and by the way, instead of needing to finish this course by December 18th, you have to have it all done, including the final, by December 4th. Surprise! :D" ...Guess it's time to start doing two lessons a week instead of one.
Plus I need to start reinstalling programs on my computer while somehow finding a way to avoid my roommate. After all, I'd hate to tick her off by breathing too loudly.
Today was productive, though. I gave my Cookie Monster speech today, which I've been working on for about a month now. It was kind of sad... I had my speech all prepared, had my notecards ready, knew exactly what I was going to say, how I was going to say it, where I was going to smile, and so on. It came to my turn to give my speech, and I strutted up to the front of the room, trying to stay relaxed, organized my cards on the podium, and waited for the teacher to look up and motion she was ready for me to start.
Trying to stay calm, I started counting. One... two... three... four... five... six... The teacher looked up. "Okay, whenever you're ready."
I nodded, stepped forward, looked down at my cards... and completely froze up. I couldn't remember how my speech was supposed to start. I knew I wasn't supposed to read straight from the notecards. Actually, I couldn't even read the notecards, and it wasn't because of bad handwriting. In fact, I couldn't even remember how to talk, I was so nervous. So I looked up, fighting for a few seconds to remember how to give my speech, tried to make eye contact with everyone like I'm supposed to, tried to smile and ended up kind of grimacing... and then just stood there. For what seemed like hours but was probably more like twenty seconds.
When I finally managed to give the speech, it definitely didn't sound quite as good as when I was practicing it. My voice squeaked a few times, and I was visibly (and audibly) shaking the whole time, and I stopped twice, mid-sentence, from nerves. But at least I gave the darn speech! It was pretty funny, actually. The speeches were supposed to be five minutes long, give or take thirty seconds to either side. The teacher said we automatically get knocked from a 5 down to a 1 on the first competency if we're outside the time limit. My speech was five minutes and thirty seconds exactly. I wonder if she'll take off the points. Probably not.
After class, I worked on my first philosophy "midterm," then went to the CDE to take my first Latin "midterm." I was a little worried about the Latin one because I didn't get to the CDE building until almost 4:00, and it closed at 5:00. But the test only took me twenty minutes, even though I double-checked it three times. I'm fairly certain the bit about the socks and the fairy people was wrong, though. Oh well. It was funny.
Okay, well, back to work now. OpenOffice finished installing. Yaaay!
1 comment:
oh, no, the speech freeze! I went through that once when I tried out for band. Literally could not blow through the flute. But the sun still rose the next morning. I thought you would be more immune since you have been giving public speeches since you were three, but the teacher has done a great job of freaking you out.
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