16 - Farewell to 2nd Term (Part I): Public Speaking Competition

December 21, 2015 – Monday

This day was the start of the culminating event for this year’s 2^nd term of all English subjects. While going to school, I already felt the excitement to witness all the contestants to showcase their speeches, and I’m hoping that most of the winners will come from our block.

The theme of the event was "The cult of celebrities and fantasies... a Filipino obsession?” Few days before the actual contest, our professor in EPUBSP2, Ms. Nina let my blockmates who will be participating in the contest present their speeches instead of having their persuasive speech. From the moment they had their practice for the contest in the room, I already knew that my blockmates had their edge from winning in this competition.

The day started as we all gathered in the auditorium. Six of my blockmates (Yana, Gracielle, Bianca, Ado, Carolyn, Angela) were assigned to three different rooms wherein each room will hold ten participants and only three will advance to the final round. While we are waiting, we played some games to break the iced. The first game was speed speech. In this game, players were given random words every fifteen seconds and with that they must create a speech and switch through each words smoothly. Contestants from that game were really funny and entertaining, which is why the room’s dull atmosphere were lessened while we were waiting for the contestants to come back. Another game is like an ignite speech but this was done by a pair. There is a topic given to the contestants and they were showed some of pictures that were not really connected with their topic, yet, they needed to manage to efficiently link it in their speech. The last game was participated by the whole block. Each block was tasked to sing a Christmas song and each song should only be sung once and should not be repeated by the others, or else, your block will be eliminated. Unfortunately, we didn’t win in that game.

After all the games, the host announced the nine finalists that will compete for the final round. Gracielle, Bianca and Ado were three of those nine. The speakers presented their speeches which of them linked the topic based in their life experiences: their insecurities and family orientation, while the others linked upon their point of views.

The next day, Gracielle Sitjar was declared as the champion of the said competition. Her speech was really powerful and heart-rending, and I commend her for that. I admire her bravery towards sharing her own experiences since not everyone can look back about the pain of the past has brought.