It's all OVER

FINALLY. So the day came, dooms day, speech day, whatever you want to call it. I was prepped, or so I thought. It hadn't sunk in yet that TODAY was the day.

Anyway here's what went down:

9:00 - WOO BLAZER. It looks hot. And Mr. F has just told me, the other dude pulled out of the competition... lovely. Just me now ):

11:35 - Hopped in the taxi, with this Indian driver. He bothered to tell me his life story, about how he grew up in India, is studying English and Hospitality and how his asian Girlfriend is pressuring him into extending the 'see each-other 2 days a week.'

11:55 - Arrived at Yeronga State High after much stopping to look at the map, where it also caused the fare meter to rise considerably.. sneaky Indian..

12:00 - After avoiding classroom after classroom-full of stares, I made my way to the 'Common Room' where interviews were held. Felt like screaming 'I KNOW I'M IN THE WRONG SCHOOL YOU F***TARDS," after passing the last classroom. *breathes*

12:10 - Found out I was 1 hour early (joy). The admin lady asked me to stay in the room and 'soak in the air con,' and proceeded to leave before figuring out the air con wasn't on.

12:40 - Sitting here bored still, and really hot due to the stupid woman forgetting air con.

12:55 - FINALLY. HUMAN BEANS! This smart bean in particular turned on the air conditioner. Met the first judge, a really nice lady called Pat (short for Patricia). Then came Steph, one of the contestants. She was pretty bubbly.

1:10 - Still waiting for the other 2 judges, and where the hell are the other two contestants?

1:30 - Nice, nice. Half an hour late Judges. >_> Anyway, the other two are nice, bit intimidating. Steph and I got moved down to the makeshift library (Yeronga is pimping up their current library). Did maths homework (yum-yum log-log) for a long time, till it was my turn for the interview

2:30 - Mad, interview time! They asked basic questions from my application form, plus also a few general knowledge questions. Just so no one else asks, they were:

1. Should the drinking age limit be raised to 21?

2. Do you think the governments insulation plan was successful?

3. Should Australia put a cap on coal export?

4. Are the Winter Olympic games relevant to Australia?

I guess I answered most of them appropriately, but failed at the coal question.

3:00 - Back to the library.. read some comics and fell asleep.

5:30 - Aw disturbed from my beauty sleep. The lady judge, Pat, wanted to take me home, since she didn't want me hanging around alone. .. I'm scared.

6:00 - What the hell was I scared for? She's sweet :o and so are her kids and grandkids. Her grandchildren have american accents (born and raised in NY), so cute :D Had dinner with them and got some pointers from Pat (for my speech, lol)

6:40 - Omg, now I AM scared. Arrived at the RSL early, but later than everyone else. And HEY! There's Daddy :) & also, the president of Ekebin club.. where have I seen that face..

7:00 - I'm shakin'. But not from the nerves, oh I'm fine, but shakin' from the full-blast air conditioning. What did they plan to do, freeze me to death before I could die on stage?

7:20 - IMPROMPTUUUUZ! Surprisingly easy questions - I was prepared for the worst. Once again, for sake of not repeating myself, the questions were:

1. Are drivers of today adequately prepared for the road?

2. Bullying and violence, are they on the increase?

I reckon I did okay, got past 2 minutes for both with no problems. Just wished I had something more.. intelligent to talk about? Rather than just 'oh.. violence, yeah kids these days are killing each other.'

Shooop

7:35 (I lost track of time, so these are all made up estimates) - Schhhweet prepared speeches. When it got to my turn, it felt so much easier than I had anticipated. Honestly, I felt more relaxed than speaking in front of my class. Yesterday I visioned myself terrified, shaking, mispronouncing every word and forgetting lines. Well, some of that did happen just now, but it was unnoticeable. Unfortunately though, I spoke TOO slowly (bad thing, good thing?) and had to cut a chunk out of my speech to and skip straight to conclusion to make it under 5.5 minutes.

Then again, what am I complaining about, glad it is over. :)

8:00 - So cold.. the other speeches were wonderful. Right about now, I wished I could read the judges expressionless faces. Dad kept whispering to me that he was hungry too. I felt him jump when the president announced there would be finger food.

8:15 - -Heavy sigh of relief- Mingling time LOL. :D Started it off by demonstrating my fail skills at cutting cheese with a dorito (what the hell was I thinking, cheese doesn't even taste good with doritos). I also literally ate half their plates of cucumber (I heart that stuff) while chatting to the club members. After much staring and thinking, I figured out who the club president was.. THE BUTCHER WHO WORKS NEXT DOOR TO ME! ^_^

8:30 - Oh my god. Results O_O

Part of me wants to win (human condition okay?) and part of me didn't, on the grounds I'd have to redo this ordeal in zone level. Anywayyy, a girl from Yeronga won, both overall and public speaking (wow IKR pro). Afterwards we went through all this phototaking, hand-shaking, congratzing business.. so bugged at this point. During the handshakes, Pat bothered to tell me I came in 2nd. WHY! Sure, others may be happy about this news, but I feel as if I've just got another B10 for English. So close yet so far, I really despise this feeling. I left as soon as they closed up the night with Dad (he was ravenous, poor guy).

8:40 - Endured a long car ride home with Dad going on about how Public speaking is so 'cool'

8:45 - Fell asleep to the buzzing of his voice

All in all, it was a great day, I don't regret a second of this. My poor brother is definitely getting forced into this later. :)

Love,

moi.