Conquering The Beast of Public Speaking And The Never-ending Weekend

Last weekend was a busy one.

    Friday was Singing Valentines day at our school. Which might not sound very tiring or stressful, but as yearbook photographer it wasn't easy. We spent a total of two days at school last week due to "snow", so these Vocal Ensemble kids were already stressed out to the max hoping that they had their arrangements of the songs they were singing down pat before they would have to deliver them during 4th block. I was in charge of taking photos of them going from class to class singing their "valentines" to those who had purchased one for them. To my surprise when I got down to the choir room they had a singing valentine for me! I was so excited to be real. Once the bell rang for everyone to be in 4th block, all the VE kids rushed out the door. There were probably about 7 or so groups running around the school at the end of the day, and going from group to group was definitely more cardio than I was expecting. Anyways, all the groups did so well! (Just to clarify: a singing valentine is what it sounds like: a group sings a song to the person who was chosen to receive it by whoever purchased it). A lot of my friends are in Vocal Ensemble, so to get to see them kill it was really great. Below are some pictures I took: 

So then there was Saturday.

    Saturday morning was when we started to set up for our church fundraiser called "The Money Wall". In the past we have always had a pumpkin patch, but this year we decided to go a different route. Essentially we had a wall with decorated envelopes that had dollar amounts from $1-$200 on the front of them, and we were trying to get people to take at least one and put that amount inside the envelope in order to raise enough money for us to fund things like mission trip. We served things like spaghetti, salad, etc. But all of this had to be set up prior to Sunday when it was happening. We moved tables, taped posters, pinned tablecloths underneath tables, wrapped silverware, and so much more. It was hectic let me just tell you! By the end of it I know we were all exhausted. My family and I had to wait even longer for our aunt to come pick us up, because she's a therapist and she was with a patient and couldn't come get us until afterwards. As we were leaving the church, we noticed that there was a huge car crash in front of us. My aunt parked the car and got out to check to see if there was anything she could do. After analyzing the situation, she discovered no one was injured, so she carried us to Taco Bell, even though it was almost 3:00 by then. And who would've guessed that the line was long there? It felt like that day was never going to end. I knew that only in a couple hours my friend Hallie was going to have to pick me up and take me to Senior Night so I could take even MORE pictures!

    My friend Jordyn told me to dress nice, so I dressed as nice as I could in the couple of hours of free time I got in between the craziness. My friend and her family picked me up and took me to the school so I could go enjoy Senior Night and take pictures for yearbook. I didn't know where to sit at first, then someone I met last year in AP World History asked me to sit next to her. It was close to the front and kindly agreed. The shows started promptly afterwards, and there were some really great performances. I have so many senior friends, especially since I've been following their class starting in middle school. Numerous people who I've known my whole life were awarded with superlatives, presented awards, or performed and blew me away. During the intermission the person who was sitting next to me left and never came back, so throughout the rest of the show I was basically alone. One of my favorite moments was the senior dance, which I recorded in this video. By the time it was over my hands were hurting from holding the camera in one position too long and I was extremely tired. I met up with some of my other yearbook friends and got some pictures together then left to go home, or so I thought,

    Hallie wanted to go to Chick-fil-a because she had a gift card. Her parents took us back to their house, she got her car and the gift card, and off we were to get milkshakes at like 10:00. The people working that shift that night were possibly very concerned about our health from our constant giggling. 

"Would you like anything else?" he asked.

"Yes- I mean no. That's all." Hallie replied laughing.

    We drank most of our milkshakes then she dropped me back off at my house, but my night didn't end there. I uploaded all the pictures I took that night to Facebook, Twitter, etc. for those who were in Senior Night to see which took a while. I also posted the videos I took from Singing Valentines and everything else I could think of. I didn't go to bed until past 12 that night even though I had to be up only a couple hours later for church.

    So, it was fundraiser day. I may have not mentioned this earlier, but I actually had to talk at the fundraiser! I had to share about my mission trip experience along with other girls in my youth group. I wrote a poem about our trip a couple months ago, but never did I imagine I'd be sharing it in front of so many people. I have always had the worst stage presence and a stuttering issue and so I definitely wasn't looking forward to talking in front of the congregation. I was assigned to serve a table once people started arriving which also stressed me out with my terrible memory. With the sleeting and not so great weather, there wasn't too many people, but still quite a few. The group that sat down at my table was a family I knew, so luckily that relieved a lot of stress. Talking at the first luncheon was definitely harder than it was the second time around. We had so many papers on the music stand when I tried to flip pages everything would almost fall off!

    The day felt super long, but by the end I was thankful for getting to spend my day there and help. I know we raised a lot of money for a good cause and in the end it would be worth it, even though I felt dehydrated and could barely walk without my legs hurting. And I slept in until about 11 the next day, but that's another story.

Love always,

Allison