Speaking Engagement for Kansas State's DECA Convention

Now I had no idea what DECA meant but I was more than willing to give them a speech on leadership. I knew this was going to be a hard speech when I found out that DECA was all high school students. High schoolers are a lot harder to speak to because you have to watch what you say more. No swearing at all because those old teachers will get pissed. Yeah pissed is a swear word too.

I got there a day early and took a 2 hour car ride with Jess who was really nice and made the 2 hour drive seem faster. They picked me up in a Cavalier that shook when you reached 80 mph and had no power windows or locks. We had a great time making fun of it.

We finally got to the camp where the convention was being held and I met Emily who hired me. I asked her what DECA was and she told me that the students take tests and are ranked all over the USA. I was like what student would volunteer to take a test because I know I wouldn't want to. Then she told me that these kids were the best of the best and get an all expense paid trip to Anahiem and NY for nationals where there'd be 14,000 other students competing. Well that'd be motivation enough for me when I was in high school because most of that 14,000 were girls. Eventhough I hated tests in high school I think I could manage. They showed me my room which was away from all the high school kids and was nice. I mean it was no Hilton but it would do.

Believe it or not I get really nervous before speeches, especially these kind where I have to be professional. Usually when I have speaking gigs at colleges it's mostly Q & A and I incorporate my speech inside the questions. It's really easy and it gets students more involved and less bored. However, in professional speeches I have to figure out ways to keep the crowd in the speech while educating them on the subject the school desires which was leadership. In my speeches I don't like to write it all out. I just like to have bullet points because I feel if you memorize this whole 40 minute speech I think there's more room for error but if you just talk to the students instead of lecturing them then the kids will learn more and be more entertained. I practiced my speech about 4 times that night then tried to go to sleep but I couldn't.

The next day I practiced once more and was ready. Why is it before speeches I always want to go home and say screw it. My mind says don't do it for some stupid reason. I get really nervous. But as soon as I got onstage I'm on and feel right at home. The students seemed into it and laughed at all my jokes. I like to start off with a bunch of jokes to lighten up the mood and to make me feel more comfortable on stage. My speech went about 45-50 minutes and I felt like I really did a good job. I took a bunch of questions afterwards and then had a nice little meet and greet. The students were really nice. I didn't know they were doing this but they had this evaluation sheet about the weekend and my speech was on it to be graded: excellent, good, or fair. I didn't like this idea until I saw that most of the sheets had excellent and there were only 3 that were fair out of 300. Hey you can't win them all.

I love the after feeling of speeches. I think the reason for that is because before I'm so nervous and have butterflies in my stomach then I turn that nervousness into energy and BE MIZ and rock the house. I love that feeling.

I want to thank Emily for hiring me to come out there, eventhough we play fought the entire time. I always like a person that'll argue but not really argue. I still think you drive like my grandma. :) Also a big thanks to Jess for driving me and for being the mediator. Last but not least thank you to the students and teachers. I wish you all the best with DECA. Keep up the good work. Remember anytime you're nervous and to scared to do something just BE MIZ!!!