Failures–they happen

Last night after I got off work, I went home, made some chicken quesadillas, curled up on the couched and watched ETV’s Antique Road show.

So? You might ask.

Well, while I was wallowing in self-pity, 10-minutes away in Johnson, auditions were being held for Fall’s one-act plays.

And I did not have the guts to sign my name on the piece of paper.

Instead I did what was easy and walked right by it.

I debated with myself as to whether or not I was even going to write this post.

Should I show you guys just how incompetent I really am?  It would have been easy to lie to you and say something pathetic like “Oh, it was too late to audition, but I’ll do it next semester for sure.”

(Actually, they actually extended the time until 11 p.m. and allowed late signed ups).

As embarrassing as it might be, I guess I want you guys to see how weak I can be. I do have insecurities that at times are too strong to get over.

Sometimes, I’m going to chicken out.

But, hopefully, you guys will be there to help push me to accomplish my dares in the future.

There are no more play auditions this semester, but I promise, next semester I will definitely audition for a play, even if I have to bring someone along to video tape me while I do it.

But as for right now…

Uh, don’t hate me please?

Speech part 2

UPDATE: It turns out I didn’t do as bad as I thought I did. I got a B+ on that speech.

So, I gave my second speech this semester.

And uh…it was horrible.

I walked up to the podium, made eye contact with my classmates, asked them my introduction question like I was suppose to

But after that everything went down hill.

Have you ever had to sit in the class and watched someone gave a presentation that was so awkward and bad that you sort of had second-hand embarrassment for them?

Well, that person was me.

I kept looking down at the brief notes on my half sheets of paper, praying that it would some how burst into flames and I wouldn’t have to finish.

I was hoping (and excuse me for this in advance) that Voldemort or some other dorky evil fictional character  would suddenly burst through the window and Avada Kedva my ass.

I stumbled over what seemed like every word.  Sometimes it got so bad that I would stumble over one word about three times.

It was bad.

Horrible.

Embarrassing.

Excruciating.

And down right soul crushing.

At some point, I even had a little second-hand-embarrassment for myself and felt a bad that my audience had to sit through this.

The whole time I was up there I was debating whether or not I should just go ahead walk right out of the room. After all, the drop date isn’t until the Oct. 23.

But fortunately, it was over soon (I think I might have gotten points taken off for that actually) and I didn’t have time to walk out.

So, I guess the moral of this experience is to come prepared for a speech. I don’t think I rehearsed it as much as I should have.

Also, now that I hit rock bottom with this speech, I can only do better from now on, right?

And yeah, Arthur, it’s true:

I didn’t die (okay maybe a little bit on the inside).

No one in the class hates me (apart from myself, I hope)

And years from now I probably won’t remember it (this is going in with the other repressed memories I try not to think about).

It’s a good thing I S/Ued this class.

Sports achor video

I promised some video on this blog. So, here’s my awkward and embarrassing anchor stunt. It’s okay if you laugh, I did too.

Personal trainer

Starting Monday 8 a.m. I will have my own personal trainer.

Mondays and Wednesdays for the next two week, I will have to drag my butt out of bed and lose some weight.

Stay tuned for updates.

Got Dares?

Hey everyone,

Unfortunately, I’m running into a little dry spell.

Do you have a dare that you would like to see me do? If so, please leave a comment in this entry.

I promise I will try my best to do them.

Thanks!

Sports anchor for a day

I can’t read.

Okay, that doesn’t sound right. Let’s start over.

I can read but just not out loud…on a teleprompter…with bright lights in my face.

But for some odd reason, I decided to raise my hand and volunteer for the position of sports anchor for Winthrop Close Up when the original anchor said he could no longer do it.

A decision I soon regretted.

Don’t get me wrong,  once I realized my stupidity, I tried  so hard to get other people to switch with me.

But funnily enough, no one else wanted to make a fool out of themselves either.

So, like a good trooper, I stuck with it (mainly because I didn’t want to fail ) and showed up to class.

Everything going was fine.

I confidently made adjustments to my script, joked around with my friends prior to the show and even giggled a little bit at the other anchors during their readings.

But when it came time to read my piece my flight versus fight reflexes kicked in.

From the very moment I clipped the mike on my shirt and stared at the glare on the teleprompter screen, I knew I was in some deep sh…stuff.

My heart began to beat faster and my stomach felt like it was entering some sort of gymnastic competition with all the flips it was doing.

When I began to read, my tongue swelled.

Okay, not really, but it might as well have with all the stumbling that occurred while reading the small novel in front of me.

But, I got through it.

I didn’t die and no one laughed at me (well not to my face anyway, which works for me).

And they didn’t kick me off the set or tell me to change my major straight away because I’m probably going to fail at life (which is always a plus).

So, that was my first dare for the semester.

Anchoring is hard work and I have a much greater respect for the individuals on the news who make it look so easy.

Even though broadcast journalism is my major, anchoring is not something I’ll look forward to doing.

I think I’ll stick to the production side.

One dare down, many more to go. If you have any suggestions for my next dare, please let me know ASAP.

Thanks for reading!

Why dare?

By not taking any risks, you’re taking the biggest risk of all.

And with 21 years of experience under my belt, I can’t stress enough how truthful that statement is.

I don’t know how many times in my life I looked back, not on memories but regret.

What would have happened if I tried out for that dance team? Or spoke to that cute boy in my class?

Obviously,  I’ll never know because I never took the risk of trying out or asking him out.

What’s the worse that could have happened?

Rejection?

Been there, done that. What’s the point of feeling rejection if you’re still going feel the regret?

For all I know I could be on a dance team, have a ridiculously sexy body and have  a cute boyfriend.

But I’ll never know now, huh?

Rejection hurts, but regret sticks with you.

And frankly, I’m tired of feeling regret.

So, that’s why I decided to start this blog. Each week I’m going to dare myself to do something I’m not normally comfortable with  and then blog about the experience. Occasionally I’ll post pictures or video, depending on the task.

But I need your help. I know what I’m not comfortable doing, but it’s also good to here what makes other people uncomfortable.  So, if you have any suggestions, don’t hesitate to post them.

Remember, I am a college student who hopes to find a job prior to graduation.  So, please, don’t suggest anything illegal, unethical or just downright demeaning.

I will not strip.

I’m taking a risk with this blog. The worse that could happen is that everyone will reject this, but hey, if that does happen, at least I can say I did it.

What about you?