Research Speeches have arrived. Our first Speech over five minutes. I knew our speeches would start growing in length as to prepare us for our 30 minute speech at the end of the year, but this 10 minute speech still seemed to come too fast too soon. Now I had plenty of heads up beforehand, but that didn't stop me from worrying about making a good impression. One thing I can't stand are boring speeches where they talk in a monotone voice, not using their tone, hands, or any visuals to grab attention but rather have it slip away. You can tell they are either not motivated in the topic, being forced to do it, or just don't care that much on how they present themselves. I wanted to make an impact.
One thing I wanted to emphasize is how much exposure firefighters get in the community, but the coverage on the job is very basic and minimal. This is because usually the exposure is through elementary schools or community events talking to kids, which obviously get a simpler version of the job description. However, the problem is that this notion isn't revisited later on. Kids seem to "outgrow" the occupation and move on to more esteemed jobs like a doctor or lawyer. The simplistic view on firefighting sticks with them and is never improved upon. In my speech I wanted to try an shed light on how in depth firefighting really is and how math, science, risk, and critical thinking are a part of the job. This made me brainstorm how I can make my speech memorable through interactive parts as that can engage the audience and thus make sure they will pay attention to what I am saying. I incorporated a part where they imagined they were a firefighter and walked them through a very simple house fire scenario. Then to emphasize how unrealistic it was I restarted the scenario but with all the variables that firefighters actually face. Following this, I had a true or false game that built upon the narrow view of firefighting people usually have. Despite all of my preparation and ideas, I was still nervous for my speech. I felt like I was unready, but knew I was ready if that makes sense. Either way, I think I delivered it well and people said they learned a lot from it so I am counting that as a win.
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