The Young Academicians Speech

Eighth  grade graduation was a pretty big deal in my town, so when one of my teachers told me I would be giving a speech during the ceremony I was pretty excited. I'm not really sure why I was chosen as I was not the valedictorian or even close . I was to be listed on the program as a "young academician."  Whatever that was.

Mr. B, who was the teacher who advised me of this honor, wrote out the whole speech for me and of course I spent many hours practicing it. I had the speech transcribed to some index cards, but after a short while, I had the speech down pat. Or so I thought.
The speech was in two parts, the first part being the longer part, followed by what was supposed to be a short pause, followed by me saying " honored guests, parents, blah blah blah. I present to you the class of 1967." I have absolutely no recollection of what my speech was about besides those words.

So the big day came that fateful day in June and the auditorium was packed to the rafters with family members and friends. My speech was to follow a stirring rendition of Bless This House sung by one of my classmates. I stepped lively up to the podium with my index cards with the speech on it tucked into my back pocket.  Brimming with all the confidence a cocky 13 year old can have, I was sure I would never have to even glance at my note cards.

Sure enough, I eloquently gave the first part of my speech, using the gestures and inflections I had so carefully practiced for several weeks. Then came the dramatic pause before I gave the "honored guests" part ending. So, I paused. Then, for some inexplicable reason, my mind went totally blank. I had no idea what I was supposed to say next. My mind was racing wildly. Should I grab the note cards from my back pocket? No, I reasoned, that would look awkward. I sought out Mr. B, hoping he could prompt me as to what the next words were. He shrugged his shoulders. I started to get really hot and nervously patted my hands against the sides of my suit. The audience started to realize I had forgotten the rest of my speech.

There was a quiet buzzing in the crowd as they too were unsure of what to do, or how this was going to play out. I looked out at the crowd hoping an answer to this nightmare was somewhere out there, but it wasn't! I don't know how long I stood there like a  clueless moron, but it still seems even today, like it was an eternity.

Then, without warning, the words came back to me. I finished off the speech and got what I thought was an extra loud round of applause from the relieved crowd.

I returned to my seat and one of my snarky classmates greeted me with the two words I would hear many times over the next few days: "nice speech".