The speech contest

Amy K. Anderson

One day in school, my teacher announced that a speech contest was to be held. Since this was a speech class and we were learning about the writing and giving of speeches, the teacher decided to make it an assignment. Everyone was to write a speech and have it ready to turn in by the following week. When I heard this, I thought to myself, "Oh, I'm good in English and I love to write. This will be easy." So that night I sat down to write my speech, sure I'd have it finished very quickly. I felt very inadequate in a lot of areas, but my writing ability was something I felt very sure of.

When I did start working, I tried really hard to think of good ideas, but I just couldn't come up with anything. I spent that evening trying to write the speech. I thought and thought. I started over and over. But not even a little of what I wrote was worth keeping. So I went to bed without having even a start.

The next evening I tried again. I still reasoned that, with my writing ability, this time I'd easily get that assignment done. But the same thing happened again. Every evening that week I tried, without success, and when it came time to turn in the assignment, I didn't have a speech.

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