There was no regular meeting at SAL on Thursday; instead, we had the Entertainment Speech Contest 2026. Seven contestants in total and I was sixth in line.
Preparing an 'entertaining' contest speech is a brutal task for a naturally deadpan person like me. My progress stopped short after finding a premise: sharing my deepest public speaking vulnerabilities with the audience. All I have to show for it so far is a title: "The Elephant in the Room".
Indeed, my groundbreaking progress grounded to a halt right there. I blamed my calendar. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – all swallowed by back-to-back meetings. Apparently, the remaining scraps of those three days lacked the creative muse required to rescue me from my own stifling seriousness.
And so, when the time came on the day of contest, I just steeled myself and presented an impromptu speech. I was admittedly pretty much edgy but I shook off my nervousness and even if my knees were shaking, it was because my legs were actually applauding my courage!
To my surprise, that raw, unscripted honesty – mixed with a dash of desperate wit – resonated with the three judges, and I walked away with second-place. It taught me a valuable lesson: sometimes, the best speech is the one that comes straight from the heart, completely unburdened by overthinking.
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