In 1789, the Turtles Invaded America. I haven't Slept for 24 Hours, and General Joe Washington was Our First President, Get Up, Its Senior Speech Day!

So... Wednesday...

The night before my presentation, I looked something like this...
I felt really tired, to be quite honest. Too tired to be nervous, too tired to care, to tired to do anything but SLEEP. So I promptly went to sleep. Then, I woke up, and got ready for school. I decided not to go for morning classes since I would only have one 20 minute math class that morning. Instead, my mom dolled me up and I dressed in my smart little 50's dress with a little brown sweater. I puttered about the house for a few hours, cleaning here cleaning there, thinking "in one hour, in forty minutes, in fifteen minutes, I'll be in front of people I don't know, giving my presentation... Boy am I TIRED!

I put all my things in front of the door at least 30 minutes in advance, and then double checked everything at least four times. Good thing too, because I had somehow lost my memory stick with my project on it. However, I was too tired to be upset, so I just prayed and looked for another one, which I soon found in Lexie's drawer (thanks Loo!). I put my project on the new memory stick, placed it in my bag, and resumed my puttering. I thought that it was such a shame that I couldn't be more excited. I was plumb tuckered out from this whole school year!

At last, it was 10:15. I put on my little brown suede heels and headed out the door, hauling my backpack which held my enormous project binder. As I walked, I listened to Sufjan Stevens, first listening to "Now that I'm Older" and then "All For Myself." As I listened to that last song, the school appeared as the music swelled, and a few lonely raindrops fell from the heavy grey sky. I smiled and cars began to pull in and out of the parking lot. Everyone else was leaving but the seniors who had to present. I went to my senior project classroom to pick up my hard-worked poster, and wished everyone good fortune and prayed for us all. Ms. Monty said we'd all do really well. I hoped I wouldn't flop. I went to my room (D103) and I checked everything on the computer. I was glad I did because one of my slides needed fixing (oh, outdated computers, bothersome you!). Once I fixed all that up, I set up my poster, and completely forgot my binder. I left the room, like our teacher, Ms. Monty had said to. She had said "be sure your posters are set up, and then leave the room. Your poster should be good because this is the FIRST IMPRESSION THEY WILL GET OF YOU, YOUR PROJECT, AND YOUR SOUL!" Ok, maybe not the soul part, but it sounded like our panelists were ready to bite our heads off!

I went nervously to the hall, where a bunch of other kids were standing around. We didn't really know what to do, or where to go. Though our teachers had taught us nearly everything, they were very vague on the details of the actual beginning of the presentation. So we all just sort of stood around the hallway.

"You nervous?"

"Not really. You nervous?"

"Kinda..."

"Yeah... We'll be fine. I mean I think so. I hope so! Whats your project?"

"Oh I did aksjdhf. And you?"

"I did lkhwerhy."

*someone else joins the group and the entire conversation starts up again*

It was quite funny to see everyone dressed up. Especially Guy, who is normally really outgoing and says what is on his mind. He wears really "teenage" clothes, and then that day he was dressed in a sweater and khaki pants. I had to take a step back! He said he was really nervous, and in that yellow striped sweater, he did look rather like a nervous bumblebee. I spoke with Laura, who did a dancing project. She was in my English class with Ms. Lucas. Then I spoke with Reese (who is basically our school mascot from middle-school and the all around person whom everybody knows), and another boy named Will (whom I had always thought looked like Mike from "Down Gilead Lane"... Anyway, an announcement came over the loudspeakers, or as Mr. G called it "the god-box" and told us that we would begin presentations at 11:45, but to check into our rooms at 11:15. This seemed a strange, and awfully long waiting period. Were they trying to make us nervous???

In the hallway someone shouted "11:15!" and we all darted off to our classrooms, with the last handshakes and "good lucks" behind us. I went into my room and met my two other fellow classmates who were Will and Nichole. Then we faced our panelists who seemed very nice, except the guy, (whom I can't remember the name of, lets just call him Mr. Red (he had red hair)), who seemed just as tired as I was. Ms. Chambers was something like a jolly aunt, and Ms. Petterson seemed like the type of person who might work at a nursing home, really quiet and calm. Ms. Chambers sat in the middle, and her wide eyes seemed to be the only ones focused in on the speakers at all times. We students sat in the back row of the classroom. Ms. Chambers and Ms. Petterson read my letter with interest. I was getting nervous.

Nichole wanted to go first. Will wanted to second. I was fine with being last. So, Nichole did her presentation, which was on learning to play guitars and recording music. I thought she did a fabulous job, especially considering that she had lost her cards, and was having to simply pull from her slides (which only had pictures on them). She reminded me of Rachel in the sense that she LOVED music, and wanted to pursue a music career.

Then Will went. He was very confident (reminded me something of Eugene from Adventures in Odyssey) and he talked about investing. I thought he did very well on his presentation. His voice was clear, his slides were easy to follow, and the information was good. However, he mentioned investing in bio-tech and I had a shot up through my spine thinking "NO, BAD IDEA! RED FLAG! PULL OVER!" But thats a really long story =P. As he shut down his powerpoint, and pulled out his memory stick from the computer, I realized just how unprepared I was. I wanted time to think over what I must stay, I wanted hours, days, weeks, but there it was now or never. I waited nervously as the judges... I mean panelists scribbled down their notes from the last presentation. Then, I began...

I rambled. At least, I thought I rambled. I looked to all the eyes the room. The kids seemed fairly interested. Mr. Red seemed out of it, he looked like he was staring off into space. Ms. Chambers had her eyes glued to my face and Ms. Petterson was quietly writing down her notes. As the presentation went on, I checked myself and chided my rushedness. "You missed a transition! That went too fast! You didn't explain!" I tried to steady myself, aa nd by the middle of the presentation, I felt ok. I thought I was a bit redundant at the end, saying I LOVE TO WRITE about million times, but there it was. I couldn't erase the words. Then I read my ending poem, and asked for any questions...

I was asked the following:

Have you ever taken any class that helped you to write?
I did have a wonderful English class during sophomore year, but that was because my teacher paid attention to my love for writing, not necessarily because of the curriculum.

You said you don't like change, but you like to be innovative. Whats the difference?
I like to be in control of the change. I am a creative person, so I like to make change, but I don't like being caught up in change I cannot control.

Et C'est Fini! (And it is finished)

We all walked out of that room, lugging our giant posters, and a sense of accomplishment (and relief). But what I heard after we left the room surprised me. Will, looking rather taken aback said "You did GREAT!"

"I did?" Perhaps this wasn't the best response, but I thought I did HORRIBLE (especially compared to my practice). I of course said that he did really well, (which he DID). I thought that God must have given me a captivated audience, because I thought I had rather stumbled and fumbled through the whole thing. We went up to the library where they were serving fluffy poison with liquid poison (cake and punch). I wanted to say hi to Laura and see how she did. She was beaming, and so proud. I was so happy for her, she worked really hard!

As I was talking, I guess Will went and told a bunch of people that my project was good, because in minute, Gage (from French) came and asked me "WHAT did you say in your project?"

I told him that I mostly just talked about writing. "Did you share any deep family issues?"
I had briefly touched on my moms illness, but I said that I mostly just talked about how I love to write. I was tired, and pleasently surprised at all of this, I mean thank heavens my listeners weren't bored or anything, but I don't think that my speech was that great (and I'm being honest). I think Jesus was sitting there, making my speech seem bright and dazzling, when really it was just him. I walked home, eating some gluten free muffins and apple sauce. When I got home, I kicked off my shoes, threw myself on the couch, and fell asleep to a Poirot. All in all, I was blessed and it was a good day because I think I passed and I got to SLEEP!

So, there's a nice, long, newsy post for ya. Probably too long and too newsy =P Sorry dears!

Audios Flamingos!