On Friday, April 19th, I completed the nerve-wracking journey of presenting a speech in the Barry Sullivan Law Cup. So how did this happen? Why did I do this? And what did I learn? Let’s find out together as I spew my thoughts on this page.
So what is the Barry Sullivan Law Cup? This is a question I was wondering a few months ago, when Ms. Madsen told our class about this strange and potentially exciting opportunity that she wanted to enter 3 students in. So while I had no idea what this tournament was, I decided that I was going after it. I expressed my interest to Ms. Madsen, and started learning about what it actually was. I discovered that this was a public speaking tournament put on my the Canadian Bar Association in collaboration with UBC, where high school students had to deliver a 5 minute speech. The theme this year is as follows, “War, natural disasters, and persecution are among the reasons people seek refuge in other countries. What responsibility, if any, should Canada bear in respect of refugees?”
While this was a scary and nuanced question, I made a commitment to myself this year that I wasn’t going to be afraid of hard work. So the process began. Ms. Madsen had the interested students submit a paragraph on why they wanted to compete in the tournament, and announced a few days later that I was in. This news was extremely exciting and terrifying. Even better, was that I was going to be doing it with Dana.
We began around two months before the tournament. We did a whole ton of research on international and domestic refugee policy.
This was the timeline of our process, with Friday morning meetings. It didn’t take much deliberation to figure out that we were both taking the stance of pro-refugees. The build-up to the actual speech was an insane blur where I could only think about my speech and what I wanted to write and what I needed to write and what Dana is writing and what feedback I need and what if I’m doing this wrong- and so on. Despite all this stress, Dana, Ms. Madsen, and I worked as a great team and we were able to collaborate and keep each other on track.
After spring break, I was getting ready for the speech, alongside my PLP trip (blog coming soon!), which I was leaving for on the 20th, the morning after the trip. We got an email a few weeks before, and after reading the heading, I struggled to breathe for a few moments. Here’s what I read:
Now what’s the issue here? April 18th-28th. For some reason, it was stated on the school calendar that the trip on the 20-28th. After a minor meltdown, I decided that I was going to do everything in my power to try and do both. We contacted Mr. Hughes and explained the situation and begged for a flight on the 20th. Thankfully, he was able to accommodate the situation, and I was going to fly out by myself on the morning of the 20th. Thank you Mr. Hughes!!!
Now that we got that all sorted out, my attention was turned back to my speech and nothing else.
Once we had our mostly finalized speech drafts, the rehearsal began. I was a bit nervous for this part, but we had some experience before in our debate project. I quickly realized that I was having the same issue as last time, where I was simply unable to provide the proper emphasis and tone. Dana and I mostly memorized our own speeches, and then each other’s because of the frantic constant rehearsal in the week leading up.
Once I bought my outfit two days before my speech, things got a bit too real. I was going to be delivering a speech that I HAD MADE, in front of a panel of LAWYERS. At least I had cute heels to wear!
Then it was the day of the speech. I had to explain to a bunch of people at school why I wasn’t in Arizona with the rest of my class. Trying to explain that I’m doing a public speaking tournament without anyone forcing me to was a humbling process. After reciting our speeches all day long, Dana, Ms. Madsen, and I set off on the seabus to the UBC Robson Square campus.
We were sorted into groups, and Ms. Madsen could unfortunately only watch Dana. It turns out that I had a fun club of sorts, because a whole entourage of my extended family was invited. I was speaking first in my room and saying I was nervous is the understatement of the century. As I was sitting there in the opening remarks, my legs were shaking, my palms were dripping with sweat, and I was imagining everything that could go wrong. Luckily, I remembered that it literally wasn’t even that deep and I calmed myself down with some deep breathing. Before I knew it, I was up there delivering my speech and watching lawyers slightly nodding or scribbling on their notepads.
Sitting down after that speech was the biggest relief of my life. Now, I just needed to sit through 6 other speeches in the preliminary round. After two pretty amazing speeches, a guy got up to speak. He began by setting up a story that takes place in Kenya, which made me nervous, as I used a Kenyan refugee’s story by the name of Flora Tehra. As I watched in a minor state of shock and devastation, he detailed Flora Tehra’s life for the second time that evening. Only he did it without a script, and better than I did… at least I went before him!!
I unfortunately didn’t make it to the final round, but neither did he, so at least we went down together. Watching the five finalists was very entertaining. They were all very impressive in their individual ways. I truly had no time to reflect on this process and event after, because I finished packing my bag and then left at 5am for the airport the next morning. Now that the trip is sadly over, I’m back to reality and I realized that there was some reflecting to be done on this journey.
Although this was an individual speech, it could’ve have been more of a group project. I worked closely alongside Dana to write, refine, and rehearse our speeches and we were extremely effective collaborators. I enjoyed getting to work with someone who is also very motivated and driven.
Dana and I worked alongside Ms. Madsen throughout this process and she was able to give us great feedback and suggestions, in addition to keeping us on track throughout the process.
The teacher and peer critique I received was instrumental in the success of my speech and I was able to draw on my past knowledge of feedback from PLP and effectively implement it.
The continuation of my public speaking development truly pushed me out of my comfort zone, by presenting in front of PLP 12, and actual lawyers. Even though I was terrified, I feel like I could present to anyone now.
So even though this was a complicated and scary process involving a lot of hard work, I am so glad I did it, and I would totally do it again!
I’m super grateful to Ms. Madsen for all the time and effort put into this. This was an invaluable learning experience for both myself and Dana. I’m super excited to take spoken language 12 next year after this! Also shoutout to Mr. Hughes for accommodating this experience and organizing for me to join the trip two days in.
This blog post might seem a bit strange and informal in contrast to my usual ones, because I’m not sure if anyone will see this. Even if it’s just for me, I’m glad to reflect on this journey and thanks for making it this far if you stumbled upon it.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned to hear about the best PLP trip ever coming up soon!
Sincerely,
Me
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