I definitely feel like Speech 3 was my best speech yet and I’m so happy about that. Before all my speeches, I get very nervous and my sympathetic nervous system goes off like crazy. However, for this speech, I was able to calm down A LOT faster than I used to and from my point of view, I thought I slowed down my talking a lot more and didn’t think my voice was shaky like it normally would be. After I gave the speech I felt much better than I normally do. I think what was so different about this speech was the content in it– I could talk about my mom for days. Being able to express the relationship I have with her and what she means to me was easier said than done, because I was at a loss of words at first, but once I started writing it’s like I couldn’t stop. So I do think the component of being comfortable with the topic made the delivery a lot easier. Also, I rehearsed more than I have in the past– this time I rehearsed to myself in one of the study rooms in the commons alone and filmed myself as we do in the dry runs. This helped me realize what part I could add in longer pauses because even alone, I was rushing. So, I added delivery cues of PAUSE at the end of each paragraph and I think this was a big contributor to me being more confident delivering. As for the feedback I received, a pretty common critique was to use more body language and motions. I can definitely agree with this because I know that I don’t move at all– I’m so focused on my pacing, calming down, and voice projection and totally forget about movement. This is something I would like to work on for the next speech.