The Victory Speech by Rachel

The Victory Speech by Rachel - February 2017 Scholarship Essay

When I was in fourth grade, I entered in a talent show with a few of my friends. This was the first time any of us had preformed in a talent show before, and we had practiced weeks putting together a dance complete with music, dance moves, and props. Collectively, we spent hours practicing for the talent show that was to be preformed in front of our entire school and a few parents. Needless to say, when the day of the show arrived, we were all extremely nervous.

I remember the hours leading up to the show, and I had uncontrollable butterflies in my stomach. Throughout the day all I could was, "What if we mess up, or forget something?" or, "What if we get made fun of for our dance?" No matter what I did, I could not help but think of the worst possible scenarios that could happen.
Finally, the time of the show arrived and they had closed the curtain for us to quickly go on stage, set up our props, and get in our positions. We stood there with our heads down as the curtains rolled back and the lights shined on us, waiting for the music to start.

The music came on and we began our dance. For the first twenty seconds all seemed to be going as planned. But then came time for me to grab the first prop that went with our dance. As I moved towards the back of the stage, I looked for the prop I was suppose to grab - a blue ball that I was going to throw to another one of the dancers. I frantically scanned the stage as the music continued to play, but there was no ball to be found; I had forgotten to bring the ball with me on stage. Soon, the others dancers realized something was wrong. I had not done my part in the dance, and it threw the rest of us off; no one knew how to continue. We stood there as the music droned on completely motionless, red-faced, and utterly humiliated. The audience then became aware that something had gone wrong, and were waiting for us to somehow continue, but we didn't. It seemed like hours before one of the teachers realized what was happening, and signaled for the music to be shut off and the curtains closed.

My friends and I ran off the stage and went to the back room to figure out what went wrong, and I had to explained to them with tears streaming down my face how I had messed up the dance. I had let my friends down, wasted hours of preparation, and was completely humiliated. From then on, I vowed never again to speak or preform in public ever again.

Fast forward four years, and I was in eighth grade about to enter into high school. I was finally old enough to run for class office for my freshman year in high school and be apart of Student Council. This was something I had wanted to do for so long, and had anxiously waited till I was old enough to be apart of it. However, there was one set back: I had to give a speech in front of my entire grade. With much debate and contemplation, I eventually decided to face my fears and run for Class Secretary.

I spent weeks writing my speech. I rewrote it three times, had my parents read it, and memorized it. At the time, I didn't think I was going to win; another girl in my grade was running against me, and she was more popular and out-going than I was. However, I decided it was time to face my fear and no matter what happened this would be a learning experience for me.

In the hours leading up to the speech, I thankfully had more activities going on earlier in the day to distract me, and not let me overthink things. Fortunately, I didn't have to go first, and I watched my fellow classmates give their speeches while I could focus on remaining calm. They finally called my name and I walked up in front of everyone to say my speech. This time, it was truly flawless. I didn't mess up once, I made eye contact throughout the speech, and I remained calm through the entirety of it. I had come prepared and didn't allow myself to overthink things. I overcame my fear, and gave one of the best speeches of the day.

The next day, the result of the elections came out, and I scanned down the page until I finally saw the header, "Secretary"; underneath it was my name. I had beat out my opponent despite my lack of popularity and fear of public speaking. Since then, I have ran for my grade's Sophomore Class Secretary and Junior Class Chaplain, and I have won both times. My failure from elementary school has taught me to go outside of my comfort zone. It has taught me that with perseverance and courage there is no failure that can't be overcome. Without overcoming my failure, I would have never been apart of my school's Student Council, which has turned out to be one of the most rewarding experiences in my high school career.