Recently (and by recently, I mean today) I was given the opportunity (forced...) to give an oral presentation on Hamlet. The teacher gave everyone the chance to pick their own passages from her list. I picked mine and was ready to go. I thought this one was in the bag.
As we all know, things go wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong. Someone gave their speech before me and I double checked to make sure my speech was correct. To my surprise, I only prepared for HALF of my speech. Yeah, that's right!! I didn't do the second half of the monologue. It went something like this.
Claudius: Blah, blah, blah, Laertes. What are you going to do to prove yourself your father's son??
Laertes: KILL HAMLET!!
Claudius: GOOD!! REQUITE HIM FOR YOUR FATHER!!
This whole ordeal actually took up a few page. Maybe if I was in Shakespeare's time, I would have saved everyone a lot of time. Anyway, I thought I had half the page, not the full page. Laertes' line was only a measly one line, cutting it in half.
I looked at the clock: It was 11:05, and the bell was to ring at 11:20. Could I hold out that the person before me could speak for miles and miles without stopping, with the hopes that I might be able to give my presentation in the morrow?
Heck no. I realized there wasn't a chance of that. I immediately began reading the second half, jotting down quick notes. At 11:10 I went up and spoke as long as I could, hoping it wasn't too short.
Luckily I pulled off speaking for about 7 minutes. Thank God! I pulled that out of nowhere. It just goes to show you what IB students are truly capable of.
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paigeorose92's life in high school
As I go through my days--full of stress, love, hate, and writing--I find it best to describe to an unknown world what my life is like. This is what this journal is for.
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