Next Time, I Check My Watch

Today I gave a talk in church. Here is the tale...

A couple of days ago, when I began my preparation, I realized that I'm way more used to giving lessons than talks. When you give a lesson, you prepare thirty minutes worth of material and work in time for comments. Also, you aren't standing at a podium, speaking into a microphone, with the bishopric sitting behind you and everyone staring at you. Anyway, my talk was only supposed to be ten minutes, so I had to cut down a lot of the things that I wanted to say.

I successfully wrote a ten minute talk. I actually did a timed read-through that went a little longer than ten minutes, but I figured that I would be talking faster when I actually gave it (which happens when I get nervous), so it would work out just about right.

Sunday came. I walked up and sat on the stand, trying all the while to calm myself down and not make it obvious to the entire congregation that I was incredibly nervous. I willed my hands to stop shaking and made a conscious effort not to fidget. My friend and roommate, Michelle Bergsjo, went first. After about five minutes, she told the congregation that I had mentioned a concern for going over time, so she was cutting down her time. What a pal :) I got up and began to deliver my talk, glancing over at the clock so I could properly gauge my time. 11:20. I made a couple of dumb jokes and introduced myself, then got into my actual talk. I started to calm down at this point, and had almost gotten to the end my prepared material when I happened to glance up at the clock. 11:25. I panicked. How could it be that I had only spoken for five minutes? Had I really been speaking that fast? I rifled my brain for ideas to lengthen my talk, but there were none. Flustered, I wrapped up my talk, sitting down and feeling like a fool. I was both shocked and embarrassed. I asked Michelle if I had really only spoken for five minutes. She replied that we both had. We had left almost half an hour for the third speaker.

Or so we thought. After the intermediate hymn and a few minutes into the final talk, Michelle leaned over and whispered that the clock has stopped. I looked at the clock. Still 11:25. I looked at my watch: 11:40. Relief swept over me as I realized that I had indeed, spoken for a full ten minutes. I still felt slightly foolish about getting thrown off and ending my talk somewhat awkwardly (though my sister later insisted that she couldn't tell anything was amiss), but I could deal with that.

The good news is that it's over, and it will be a long time before I'm asked to speak in church again :)

The end.

A Dilemma of Sorts...

Many of you may remember last year, when I took online Jeopardy! test. Well, the time for the test has come upon me once more, and as I went to register for it, I saw that the nearest interview location (provided that I pass the test) is Los Angeles. This leaves me with quite the decision to make. On the one hand, I highly doubt that I'd even get a good enough score to move on to the next level (I only got 21 out of 50 last time), and I really only took it for fun last time. Mostly I just want to see what the questions are and found out how well I can do.

On the other hand...suppose a miracle were to happen. Suppose that I do incredibly well on the test and they invite me to an in-person interview. I would have to fly out to L.A.! I don't have money, I'd have to get work off, and I'd have to find someone to come with me, as I'm slightly terrified of running off to strange, large cities by myself.

On the other hand...oh, I'm out of hands? On the one foot, what if a miracle did happen and I did fly to L.A. and I passed the interview and.... I GOT TO MEET ALEX! That would be a beautiful thing.

Gah! I just don't know.

It's a new year, blah blah blah...

It's the first blog post of the new year, and I'm not really sure what to write about. I've never been much for making New Year's Resolutions (see my General Conference=My New Year's post), so I won't talk about that. There's no harm, however, in looking over the past year. Last year was actually quite a good one for me. Here are three exciting events from 2010:

A: Receiving my endowments in the temple. This event was huge. I'm incredibly grateful for the blessings I have received by attending the temple. It's so wonderful to live so close to a house of the Lord and be able to learn of Him. (Feel free to check out the post I wrote at that time, Just a Little Update.)

2: I graduated from college! Sometimes it felt like it would never happen, but it did! I now have a degree in English with an emphasis in Literary Studies and a minor in History. What does that mean? No, I am not going to teach. Pretty much, it means I can read and write, and even though I'm still at my college job, I'm okay. (Here's my post on graduation: Sweet Beans.)

D: I moved out! I've lived out of my parents' house before, but not as a college-graduated adult in non-student housing. It's different, I promise :) I painted my room a super awesome color of something akin to avocado green, and together with my good pals Amanda and Michelle (Amanda downstairs with me, Michelle upstairs with her cousin Kora eventually joining her), we have made major strides in becoming responsible adults, which is only partially as fun as it sounds.

So there's my year! Of course other events occurred. I turned twenty-five, changed wards as a result of the Ward Overhaul of 2010/moving, and started up a Utah Temple Tour with Amanda (a movement to attend a session in each of our great state's temples).

So thanks, 2010, for being so good to me. Here's hoping that 2011 will be just as fabulous.