I'm Pierce Blackman and coming up with a senior speech was the one thing I was always nervous about coming to this school. Since the beginning of Freshman year, I would see speech after speech being presented at morning meetings. Some of these speeches caught my attention while others put me halfway to sleep. During these speeches, what most grasped my attention from the beginning was how the speaker presented themselves and how they presented their speech.
Just like in everyday life, first impressions mean a lot and can alter how you see a person. Things like how someone dress, walk, talk, and how they carry themselves can tell you a lot. Over the summer I was a recruit division commander at a boot camp in the naval sea cadets. As a recruit division commander, I had to oversee six staff as well as twenty-eight recruits for two weeks. If my staff and I were to be super relaxed and not well put together on the first day all the recruits would neither have any respect for us nor feel like it was supposed to be a high-intensity environment which it needs to be. One of the harder parts of all this for me is being able to put on a stern face when in front of the recruits because I enjoy talking to others so much. This is also one of the things that separate the staff from the recruits is how we need to be able to control our urges by knowing when to talk and whom to talk to.
Throughout the two weeks, my staff and I had to endure lots of pressure in scheduling class times to teach classes about different things like types of fires, two of them being electrical and chemical, also when to take them to lunch, and even when to let them use the bathroom.
As a team, we were able to accomplish these tasks, just like in school when we are working on a group project. If one person takes all of the work on themselves this can lead to issues like work not being all done or not being accurate. Being able to delegate the workout among each other is beneficial.
Who you delegate work to can also make projects easier. If you know one person is good with graphs they can be in charge of that and if someone is good at drawing they can be in charge of the pictures.
When delegating the work you need to make sure that you are not being too strict because then no one will want to work on what they are assigned to. You need to sound confident but not controlling. Just as in giving a speech.
Another thing my cadet program taught me when becoming a leader is how to gain the attention of those we are leading.
I have had many different leaders throughout the years, some who were able to captivate us in everything we did and others who seemed to just be going through the motions.
This made lectures about fascinating topics become a bore, rather than something we all looked forward to. One way they were able to captivate us was with how they talked. They didn't just sound like the monotone voice that comes from our computers and phones when we were too lazy to read, their words felt energetic and meaningful. (Read in monotone voice) If I were to read the whole speech like this, (switch) you would probably wish you were still home in bed.
As most of you have probably seen, there is a new addition on our school's field - the Gaga Pit. Over the summer I and some other classmates and friends built this for my Eagle Project. During the project I had to direct and lead everyone in the building process. Part of the project is stepping back as a leader and having others do the physical work. When I had to direct them I made sure to make everything clear on what they were doing and then split them up into groups to work on things like digging holes and putting brackets on the walls. After we were finished with the work each day we would often go out and get something good to eat which made everything worth it.
I am very sure that if I had led the groups differently, the job would have either not been completed or even worse not even started. How you act toward others can make all the difference in how you work as a team. I hate being a part of projects where there is one person just barking orders at me. When this happens I want to either just work slower or just not work at all.
Knowing that makes me never want to become that kind of person.
Another way seniors and leaders have grasped my attention was by using references to things that we all may know.
For example, the way Julia Ramirez quoted Shrek and used that to help explain her speech. This wasn’t just a funny quote that worked, it helped us to relate to what she was talking about. Giving us a deeper connection and understanding. Which keeps us engaged with the speech and makes us want to see how the connection is made.
If someone's speech was about them being shy around others but having a lot to express, they could use the quote from Stephen Hawking “Quiet people have the loudest minds”. This would be something we all would understand because we all know Stephen Hawking and how in his later days, he was not able to talk due to his condition. Yet he always had something on his mind.
Another reason why we are all so captivated by speeches like Julia’s is that she wrote about something she cares about. I care deeply about both Cadets and Boy Scouts because I have been in both for a total of 17 years.
If you are writing a speech about a topic because you have to, rather than out of the willingness to share your ideas with others, your audience will hear this in the way you present your speech. They might lose interest instead of wanting to hear more. I hope you enjoyed listening to my speech and hope to see you using the Gaga pit soon.