Thank you, past me
Last night, I went to church to give the committee report from the personnel committee to the church council. I'm almost done with my job there. I had 6 presentation slides. I talked extemporaneously for about 20 minutes, answered questions, and then sat down.
As I was listening to the presentation on capital campaign (fundraising, a strange country), I realized that although I will freak out for weeks about dental work, or interviews, I am not particularly nervous about public speaking to groups under 50. Over 50 and we start getting a big wad of imposter syndrome in my public speaking confidence. Not that I can't speak, but I can't possibly be expert enough to be telling this many people anything, yadda yadda.
I went to high school in a teeny tiny town, in a backwards county known as the STD capital of the state. My mom was a California state speech champion. She's a teacher. She's a pastor. I have never known a time my mom was not a kick-ass public speaker. I wanted to be a kick-ass public speaker! (I also wanted to be a debater, sad for me) My school was far too teeny-tiny to have a speech department, or teacher, or club. Not for us "this one time at speech and debate camp". What we did have was Future Business Leaders of America. I think this branch was sponsored by the business/typing/jr. high boys basketball coach, but I never thought to ask why. It just was.
I joined up, and he did what he could for me, but he had no experience in speech, or debate. I signed up for impromptu speech. I signed up for other kinds of speech. I signed up for (my reasons escape me, even now) parliamentary procedure. We went to regionals, and we did pretty well. Much better than you'd expect. We went to state* (ZOMG, we drove into SEATTLE, and we ate at BENIHANA! THE HEIGHT OF CITY LIVING). I wore pleated black skirts and silk shirts and neckties. When I got into state, my mom bought me an actual factual suit to wear. (with a cream silk shirt and cream embroidered vest. Stylin'!) I wasn't great at impromptu speech, but I watched other people and eavesdropped on what their coaches said and checked out books from the library. One year, I even went to business camp, which was sobering. I think it killed any desire I had to found a business. Also I had to depress someone's amorous attempts by dragging him through a sprinkler.
Anyway, my point is, sometimes the things that I did on impulse when I was young are the things that I find most valuable now. Typing, for instance, was not mandatory, but I took it because I'd imprinted on Cheaper By The Dozen and because my mom types 80+ wpm. I have never been that fast because I have never been motivated to be that fast, but I cruise along at a perfectly respectable 60 wpm, and that is PLENTY to get buy in the technological age. Typing: the most useful class I took in high school. FBLA, possibly my most useful extracurricular. Volleyball was also useful, in that it taught me some humility. ;) I do some photography, but not like I expected to do in high school. I do some literary criticism, but I didn't become an English professor. I hated math and I use it all the time in crafting. Today I was trying to figure out "if the garment is 24 inches unwashed, and the swatch was 29 stitches to 4 inches unwashed, and washed it was 31 stitches to 4 inches, how long will the finished washed garment be?" (I have deep suspicions the answer may be that I did my original math wrong, but at least I tried, eh?)
High school: useful, but not in the ways I expected.
* The highest I placed in speech was 5th, but not bad considering my patchwork of coaching. The bizarre thing was that I placed 3rd in business law. I'm really good at basic multiple choice tests. The kids who had actually TAKEN business law class were just livid about this.
As I was listening to the presentation on capital campaign (fundraising, a strange country), I realized that although I will freak out for weeks about dental work, or interviews, I am not particularly nervous about public speaking to groups under 50. Over 50 and we start getting a big wad of imposter syndrome in my public speaking confidence. Not that I can't speak, but I can't possibly be expert enough to be telling this many people anything, yadda yadda.
I went to high school in a teeny tiny town, in a backwards county known as the STD capital of the state. My mom was a California state speech champion. She's a teacher. She's a pastor. I have never known a time my mom was not a kick-ass public speaker. I wanted to be a kick-ass public speaker! (I also wanted to be a debater, sad for me) My school was far too teeny-tiny to have a speech department, or teacher, or club. Not for us "this one time at speech and debate camp". What we did have was Future Business Leaders of America. I think this branch was sponsored by the business/typing/jr. high boys basketball coach, but I never thought to ask why. It just was.
I joined up, and he did what he could for me, but he had no experience in speech, or debate. I signed up for impromptu speech. I signed up for other kinds of speech. I signed up for (my reasons escape me, even now) parliamentary procedure. We went to regionals, and we did pretty well. Much better than you'd expect. We went to state* (ZOMG, we drove into SEATTLE, and we ate at BENIHANA! THE HEIGHT OF CITY LIVING). I wore pleated black skirts and silk shirts and neckties. When I got into state, my mom bought me an actual factual suit to wear. (with a cream silk shirt and cream embroidered vest. Stylin'!) I wasn't great at impromptu speech, but I watched other people and eavesdropped on what their coaches said and checked out books from the library. One year, I even went to business camp, which was sobering. I think it killed any desire I had to found a business. Also I had to depress someone's amorous attempts by dragging him through a sprinkler.
Anyway, my point is, sometimes the things that I did on impulse when I was young are the things that I find most valuable now. Typing, for instance, was not mandatory, but I took it because I'd imprinted on Cheaper By The Dozen and because my mom types 80+ wpm. I have never been that fast because I have never been motivated to be that fast, but I cruise along at a perfectly respectable 60 wpm, and that is PLENTY to get buy in the technological age. Typing: the most useful class I took in high school. FBLA, possibly my most useful extracurricular. Volleyball was also useful, in that it taught me some humility. ;) I do some photography, but not like I expected to do in high school. I do some literary criticism, but I didn't become an English professor. I hated math and I use it all the time in crafting. Today I was trying to figure out "if the garment is 24 inches unwashed, and the swatch was 29 stitches to 4 inches unwashed, and washed it was 31 stitches to 4 inches, how long will the finished washed garment be?" (I have deep suspicions the answer may be that I did my original math wrong, but at least I tried, eh?)
High school: useful, but not in the ways I expected.
* The highest I placed in speech was 5th, but not bad considering my patchwork of coaching. The bizarre thing was that I placed 3rd in business law. I'm really good at basic multiple choice tests. The kids who had actually TAKEN business law class were just livid about this.