Reflective Essay for Loss Speech

Going into the speech, I did not really have any concrete expectations. I think one thing I do very well is entertain people, so I knew garnering a class’ attention would not be terribly difficult. Additionally, I knew my subject matter was rather light-hearted and, with proper delivery, I figured my speech would go fairly well. Physically, I was hoping to be able to move around, and attempt to make eye contact with everyone in the classroom. I wanted everyone to have a feeling of involvement and truly relate to the speech I was giving. In another emotional perspective, I wanted the audience to not have a sense of sorrow for my “loss”, but a sense of joy in recollecting the fun times of their childhood.

Being able to go third, in my opinion, was advantageous. Although I was interested in going first, going early on still allowed me the opportunity to speak early while the topic was on my mind. Furthermore, I did not have to wait around and dwell on ways to improve, or on ways my speech could have gone awry. I think the speech itself went tremendously well. I was able to get some sort of smile or chuckle out of most of the students. Additionally, I think the audience’s questions pertaining to my speech truly showed the relation that they felt to their own childhoods. For instance, one student asked if I had attempted anything drastic, like tying my tooth by a string and a door. I think this also showed the lightheartedness the audience felt, which is something I was aiming for. Additionally, I finished within the time limit, which I am pleased with.

There were several things I think I could have done better for the speech. I wasn’t able to move around as much as I anticipated. Frankly, I didn’t move at all. I think that my thinking was, since it was a short speech, a lot of movement might take away from the overall message of the story. Another thing I could have done better was reduce the number of filler words that I used, like “umm” and “like”. While I didn’t speed up too much during the speech, there wasn’t always a flow to it, as I struggled to remember exactly what I wanted to say to the audience. I did not even use the note card that I brought up, which I actually was pleased with, because it demonstrates that I remembered enough to get through the speech.

For the next speech, I think the most important thing for me to focus on is to have a better flow to the speech. I think the more fluent a speech is, the better an audience understands and pays attention to the speech. Another thing that will be something to consider is that not all of my speeches will be fun like that one, so I’ll need the ability to take on more serious subject matters.