My main strength when giving speeches is memorization. Whenever I had a speech for my speech class, I would start practicing as soon as I could, and I wouldn't stop until I could recite my whole speech without cheating or being tripped up. This led me to never really use note cards, because I feared that I would be dependent on them if I used them. I was one of the only ones in my junior year speech class to fly blind without using note cards, which I think has payed off for me now. Along with a strength like this comes and even worse weakness.
My greatest weakness in speeches has always been posture and movements. From my very first speech, where I hugged the podium for dear life, my teacher told me I needed to fix my posture. So, instead of hugging the podium, I crossed my arms, which was better but still not good. From there I started holding my wrist, which made me stiff, and might have even made me lose circulation in my hand when I was scared, but I never noticed. This is the biggest thing that I need to improve. I plan to improve this by focusing on moving my arms more instead of stiffening them. I also need to understand what to do with my hands, so I'm not just flailing them around and doing jazz hands or something like that.
Over the years, I have seen some success in the speeches I have given, but I have also had to learn a lot. I also still have much to improve, such as my posture and movements. Along with my needed improvements, I hope to continue to show my strengths, like my memorization skills. I am very excited for the my TED TALK even though I am terrified for it. When the time comes, I hope that I am able to make this my greatest speech of all time, or at least not cry.
