BAYSPEAK FINALS

On Wednesday the 7th of June, I participated in the Bayspeak finals.

Bayspeak, is a public speaking competition run by the Rotary clubs of bayside, this year involving 38 students from 12 different schools. However, only the top 6 students from each division, junior (year 7-9) and senior (year 10-12) make it through to the finals, which I took part in at Firbank Grammar. 

I had participated in the 2021 Bayspeak when I was in year 9 and I came second to my friend Anastasia, so this year I was determined win. With $400 and a trophy for each winner, the atmosphere was incredibly competitive. When I walked into the room, I was shocked with the number of people in the audience, but to maximise my chances of victory, I had a plan. I brought a box of donuts with me and shared them with everyone, unfortunately the adjudicators weren’t in the room yet so I couldn’t bribe them ☹. Plan 1 didn’t go so well, so now for my next plan: present an amazing speech! 

I sat down in my allocated seat as the second last speaker of the night and I got to watch some incredible speeches. What amazed me, were the topics of the speeches. They ranged from common topics such as feminism and procrastination, to topics I had never heard a speech on before such as: originality, writing your own life story, the roller coaster of life, even the fear of public speaking was someone’s topic. After each speech, I was getting more nervous because they were all incredible, but eventually, it was my turn. I presented a speech titled “when we are most successful, we are most vulnerable to giving up”, it was the best speech I had ever presented. When time came for the presentation, the runners up was called first, it was Richie for St Leonard, who was sitting next to me. Afterwards, the winner is about to called up. I was incredibly nervous because all the speeches were really interested and presented fabulously, it could have gone to anymore, but my name was called, I had won!

The Bayspeak finals was an amazing opportunity, I had improved my speaking skills and came home a little bit richer. Not only that, but I met some amazing people. By listening to everyone presenting a speech, I got to learn a lot about them and it allowed me to make a lot of new friends. Public speaking is a little bit scary, but at the same time it’s so much fun.

Nathan Stanford