Storytime! ~ | Public Speaking Competition!

Hello! And assalammualaikum...

Hai! Dan assalammualaikum...

Gooooooossshhh....It's been forever since I wrote a blog D: Buuut, heck! I'm here to write my experience about a competition I had attended a few weeks ago, enjoy!

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So, on the 7th of March 2018 (Wednesday), I was chosen to represent the school in an international public speaking competition located at a University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I was participating, but K. Emily and Ayla came along to support me :D I can't say on how nervous I was because, me being a girl with social anxiety doesn't really help aahahahaa- But, the reason the teacher chose me to participate is because she knows that I can speak really well and she believe I had the potential to win. I was really worried because that competition was on an exam date (Luckily I only missed Math muahahaha) and I have the potential to (literally) faint when I become too nervous.

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But then, we had to leave early in the morning. We left at around 8:00 a.m. and in the van, I literally cried because I was just to damn nervous and I really wanted my mom to tell me that I can do my best (Sorry, I can be a tad bit too childish-), but then K. Emily and Ayla did their best to calm me down, and so did my teacher. I managed to calm down, but then I fell asleep until we reached the university.

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When we arrived at the university, I was absolutely blown away. The place was huge and beautiful! We were quite late, but I managed to arrive during the 2nd contestant, and I was the 5th to give my speech. My speech was about a smile huehuehue. As all the contestant gave their speeches, I can't help but feel insecure aahahahaaa- Because, they were all such talented speakers! Not to mention that they all were so confident and brave! Then, at around 10:30, the prepared speech were over, but we were required to be back at 11:00 to prepare for our impromptu.

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Before waiting for our impromptu, we had to be inside a room so that we can (mentally) prepare ourselves. As all the speakers are all in the same room, there a was a bit of a silence, until this one guy suddenly pointed at me and said; "Hey, you know you sounded like you came out of a Disney movie?" I was a bit surprised from his statement but then the rest of the speakers agreed with him, telling me that I should be in a movie about smiling, that I should be the next Elsa and what not...// I was blushing cause I was so confused..?? I questioned them why, but they told me because I looked so positive, so animated and all- I smiled and thanked them anyway, despite on how awkward I was.

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It was very lovely talking with all the speakers, despite us not even knowing each others' names. (Seriously though, we literally called each other "friend 1, friend 2, friend 3, etc." according to our numbers lol) We all told each other about how great our speeches were, telling our experiences, our likes and dislikes when suddenly they called out the fifth speaker to talk. (Yikes) While walking to the room to prepare my speech, the person guiding me apparently was one of my classmates elder sister, which was really nice to hear aahahaa-

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As I reached the room, they gave me a piece of paper and a pen for me to jot down my ideas. The topic was 'memory' and I had four minutes to prepare. I was a bit confused on what to write about, but I just spoke out on whatever was on my mind. I managed to not pass the time, and was pretty hopeful on what I spoke about made sense for the judges to judge on. I sat down back at my seat and the first speaker looked at me and told me that I did great. He was a really friendly guy, and was easy to talk to aaaa- Then so, the speakers after me had did their speeches and everything ended at 12:30 noon. We were required to be at the auditorium at around 2:30 p.m. for prize-giving.

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When we were all at the auditorium, I was reaaaallllyyy nervous because it was my first time to be in an international competition, and there were contestants from Thailand and Indonesia which was neato I must say- But, at the auditorium, I managed to stumble with the first speaker and the third speaker, which then I finally knew their names! The first speaker's name was Henry and the third was Khadijah. I gave Khadijah a sticker and I saw Henry staring, so I told him; "Henry, I know you want a sticker.", then he looked at me, nodding. "yea." He took a sticker and sticked it on his tag, telling me that now because of that, he will remember me. As they announced the winners, I managed to win silver award (Alhamdulillah..). There were 40 speaker overall and 6 won gold, another 6 won silver and another 5 got bronze.

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Before leaving, I managed to meet with the 13th speaker and the 10th speaker, telling me congratulations on achieving silver. I managed to catch their names too, which was Aiman and Afiq. They were really lovely and funny too! x'D Made a bunch of jokes, but we had to say our goodbyes :'((((( Though, Aiman followed my Instagram which is neato ahaaa- We arrived back at school at around 7:00 p.m. which was tiring since my batchmates all attacked me, asking how I did ahahaa- But, all in all, it was an amazing day <3