My sister was the speaker. I was the writer. She wins speaking contest and I win on essay writing contests. She speaks. I write. That has always been the case between the two of us for such a long time until I found myself getting chosen as one of the emcees for this school year's Third Year  Re-Orientation then later on becoming a quiz master at NCR Cup (an Accounting quiz bee).  

To be honest, I am not sure why they picked me to be an emcee or the quiz master since I know that I am not the best speaker and I know that it is not exactly my forte but I am very thankful. I am thankful that they asked me since right after being the emcee of our batch's Re-Orientation, that's when I thought that speaking is cool after all and that it can also be my forte. It may be nerve wracking to speak in front of a large crowd but once you get the hang of it, everything will come out naturally and that's exactly what happened to me.

I was a ball of nerves during the Re-Orientation. I was intimidated by my co-emcee since obviously, she is more skilled and experienced than I am as she is a Mass Comm student. She speaks with such enthusiasm and energy and I tried to copy her but then I end up blubbing my words and getting more and more frustrated. The turning point is when one of my classmates told me to relax. So I did. I took a deep breath and I told myself that I will speak the way that I am used to and not how I think I should be talking. After that, the nerves slowly fades away and I enjoyed the rest of the Re-Orientation. 

I guess that's how I fell in love with the art of speaking. I may not be as skilled as my sister is or as experienced as my co-emcee but what I know is that I can speak. I have my own style and I will use and develop it as the years go by. 

Speaking in front of a crowd is definitely a scary thing. Everyone is watching you and a handful of them expects so much from you while the others waits for you to flop so they can laugh at you but forget about them. All you have to do is speak the way you know how to. What I realized is that you don't need to have an American twang to be considered as a great speaker. All you have to do is be confident and be flexible to changes. Screw everyone. Just speak!