Alas, No Trophy...
/While I thank everyone for their well wishes, I'm sorry to have to announce I didn't place in the contest. There were 5 of us competing and the top 2 simply outspoke me--fantastic speeches that just blew me away. Third place was probably up for grabs among the remaining 3, but I would have called it the way the judges did if I had been scoring.
Here's the question we were asked (and btw, I drew the slot to go first): "When we're 5, we dream of being a teacher or a fireman. When we're 15, we dream of being a rock star. Explain to us why you now would choose...to be a shoe."
You betcha. I think I had good energy and presence but my speech organization was lacking as I just kind of winged thoughts out there. Basically, I talked about running marathons and shoe being a support structure--different supports for different people--to take you where you wanted to go in life. Blah, blah, blah.
The winning speech was by an attorney who launched into this inspirational speech about walking in the shoes of the average American and it was/is the shoes of these workers that makes our nation the great and prosperous it is today where ALL men are created equal... you can see why his speech trumped my "like, shoes are like, totally necessary, for real" speech. =)
It was still fun and I'm glad I did it. Thanks for everyone's thoughts and well wishes for the contest!