The Princess's Speech

   I am working on an advanced manual for Toastmasters. It is a series of projects on imperative reading. Unlike most projects in Toastmasters, you take material written by others and present it. I decided to work on the projected entitled "The Oratorical Speech"
   I was very interested in this project as it was similar to the "Great Speeches" category I remember from Declamation (competitive speech team) in high school. You take a famous speech and deliver it.
  Most people would use the many famous speeches that are out there, inaugural  addresses from Presidents Lincoln or Kennedy or any speech from Sir Winston Churchill. I was interested in doing something a bit more obscure. I chose a speech given by Queen Elizabeth II in 1947 when she was Princess Elizabeth, heiress presumptive to the throne of the United Kingdom. It was given on her 21st birthday, a significant date as she had reached the age of her majority.
 It was an usual choice as it was not delivered in front of an audience. It was broadcast live from Cape Town, South Africa. It was also a departure from my usual topics of knitting and cats. I am trying to get out of my comfort zone of light comedy and try something different.
  One challenge I had with the speech is that I kept choking up. The speech was very moving to me. The thought of a 21 year old committing her whole life to the service of her country was inspiring. So few public servants do that now. That 21 year old had no idea what life was going to hold for her. All she knew on that day in 1947 was that she would someday, hopefully soon, marry the man of her dreams, Phillip Mountbatten RN ( Royal Navy). She didn't know that in less than five years she would become Queen. She didn't know that she would have four children and that some of them would be involved in scandals. She could not have predicted back then what kind of world she'd be in now.
  I was kind of wistful of her opportunity to dedicate her life to something. I wish I'd had that chance. It is common now for pharmacy schools to hold white coat ceremonies. These ceremonies are held to make the transition from student to  professional. Students take an oath and declare that they are willing to uphold the standards of their profession. When I was in pharmacy school such ceremonies were not held. I wish they had been.
  Last week when no speakers had signed up, I decided to give the speech. It was kind of spur of the moment, but I thought I would do it anyway. I would have plenty of time to practice it.
  It turned out I didn't. The practice time I hoped to have was eaten away be household chores that had been put off while we were on vacation. The only practice I had was on the drive to the meeting.
  I was able to get through most of the speech without choking until I got to the last two paragraphs. That's when she makes the actual dedication. C kept encouraging me by saying , "Be resolute!" and "Deliver it as she would have." I knew what he meant, the Queen would never have cried during that speech. I practiced those last two paragraphs over and over again. I thought I could maybe get through it.
  When it came time to do the speech, I started to talk and immediately choked up. I stopped, took a breath and started over again. It was better, but I was still going to choke up. I decided the best course was to go with it. I delivered the speech with occasional pauses to gather myself and wiped the tears in my eyes with a tissue I'd brought with me. I got through it all right and sat down.
  I'm sure the other club members thought I was having a nervous breakdown. They probably thought I was reliving old memories or something. You are not supposed to cry while giving a speech. It's not professional.
   Some club members probably thought I did not think I had done a good job. It was not a polished delivery by any means. Certainly not to the standard of someone who had been a member for 15 years. I on the other hand didn't think it was that bad. One of the things I wanted to do was practice what to do when things don't go right, like choking up. I wanted to learn to be comfortable with something like that and learn how to work with it when it happens. I also wanted develop the ability to sit down after a less than sterling performance and not immediately be harshly critical of what I'd done.
  I had achieved my goal. I got up there and got through it. I decided that I wanted to do it again with a different speech. Maybe I'll use the speech that King George VI gives at the end of the movie, The King's Speech.