Jaycee Dugard and Speech

If  you know who Jaycee Dugard is you can skip all this junk i wrote and get to the good stuff. A.k.a. the main reason why I am writing this post.

For those of you who dont know who Jaycee Dugard is please read the following:

Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped at age 11, June of 1991. For 18 years she was as a prisoner, kept by a man named Philip. She lived in a tent in a backyard, became a sister, and a mother.
She was not allowed to speak her own name and was an object for Philip " use and abuse" as stated many times throughout her book, A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard.

Can you imagine that? Not only was she taken from her home and the people she loved, she was not allowed to say her name. Her own name. The one thing that truly labels someone as being human.
"On August 26th, 2009, I took my name back. My name is Jaycee Lee Dugard."

Ok heres the good stuff:

Now youre probably wondering, why is this relevant? Why am i writing about it if it happened 4 years ago?

Im kinda wondering that too.

Wait i know why.

Two words: Speech Team.

Before speech I had barely heard about this girl. All i knew was that she had been kidnapped and kept for a long time then eventually got free. That little sentence right there is kinda pathetic and truly does not encompass everything that had happened to her.

Now back to Speech Team.

Keep in mind, I hate speaking in front of people. I get nervous, my voice shakes and so do my hands. I do not like standing in front of strangers and talking in front of them. When I have to, I refuse to look at anyone listening and just stare at the back wall of the room. So God knows what possessed me to join the speech team knowing this.

Wait I know the answer to this too. Theatre. I wanted to become a better actor.

So I joined the speech team.

There are many different categories like Duos, Humorous, Great Speeches, Poetry, and Prose. I was put in the category of Prose. And more specifically: Serious Prose. Serious Prose is where you pick a serious book about something like rape, abuse, cutting, death, disorders, diseases, and basically anything depressing. Its such a happy category.  Then you take bits and pieces of whats written and put it together into an 8 minute long speech.

My first attempt to find a serious book didnt go so well.

I chose the book "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Piccolt. I cut it, loosely pieced it together, and put a crap-load of post-it notes in it.

Then I later found out that I couldn't use it because I'm a girl and the story is written from the point of view of a guy, which would make it hard to do.

God dangit.

I tried. *insert picture of a gold star*

Then the story of Jaycee Dugard was brought up. I had vaguely heard about her before this as stated in my intro if you cared to read it.

Honestly I'm surprised if anyone read this far. I could just add a random word in and nobody would potato.

I decided to buy the book that she had written and read it. We tries to put it on hold at the library but it would take awhile to come in and aint nobody got time for that.

So I bought it and I read it.

A million different emotions ran through my mind. I was shocked, angry, disgusted, and sad about what was happening to her in the story.

And I had only read the first 10 chapters. I didn't even finish the book, but I know that there's worse to be read in the remaining chapters.

The kidnappers name is Philip. He told Jaycee that he kidnapped her so she could help him with his "problem". He did terrible things to her during the 18 years did she was with him and kept in the backyard.

She had become pregnant with 2 of his children at a very early age.

Even though I knew that this was a true story I kept wishing that it wasn't.

I knew I wanted to do this for my speech. It was a horrible, yet captivating story. My speech coach took the time to cut and piece it together which I am extremely grateful for. I don't think I could've done it myself.

Now time for the memorization part. Crap.

Memorizing was really hard. This is about and eight to nine minute speech. I was overwhelmed and I didn't think that I could do it.

My speech wasn't completely finished until the day before for the first speech tournament.

I. Was. Terrified.

The first round was awful. There was an amazing speech guy in my first round. He was completely memorized along with almost everyone else in the room besides one person. That did nothing to boost my confidence. I had maybe the first half of the page memorized.

Great just great I thought. Oh well here goes nothing.

I survived my first round. Surprisingly.

The critique sheet I got back wasn't that bad. The judge said that I made a lot of awkward hand gestures.

Yeah. I know.

Second round went a little better. Third round I think went okay.

I was done with my first tournament. PRAISE THE LORD.

I am now memorized with my speech which I am glad for. I felt like without having it memorized I wasn't paying full tribute to Jaycee Dugard. Now that I am memorized I feel like I can fully convey her story and give it the credit it deserves .

So I had a tournament this Saturday and I got an HONORABLE MENTION

IM SO HAPPY

WOOOOOHOOOOOO

All in all, im glad I joined speech. I have had a lot of fun, I have become a better speaker, and I have had a great time doing speech with my friends. Even though I've had to get up at four or five in the morning every Saturday for the last two months and also have been stressed because of the memorization, it has been worth it.

It really has.