Going back to when I was in 4th grade, I have had personal experiences that tought myself and engrained into the person that I have become, that Hard Work pays off.
In 4th grade we had an assignment to read a biography of a famous person of our choice, and give a book report on it in front of the class. I chose Martin Luther King, Jr. and read the book on Dr. King's life, did my report of all the defining moments that made him the important historic figure that he had become on this planet. But I didn't grow up with much money and couldn't afford the fancy poster boards and pictures that the other kids in class would have with their presentations. My Mom worked until 10pm every night as a 911 dispatcher (had to tuck myself into bed back then), so she couldn't help give me any ideas. So all I was left with, the day before the presentation, were some sloppy, 4th grade, left handed notes on ripped out spiral notebook paper about Dr. King's life. I remembered in the book I had read there were two pages that had the entire second half of King's "I have a dream speech" word for word in it. I thought that it would be cool to recite the speech during my book report. But I did not want to read it off of paper, I knew I could make an impact on my grade, the teacher, my classmates if I memorized it and made eye contact with everyone in the room during my presentation. So I dedicated the next 7 hours of my life that night to memorizing the entire second half of the speech. Over and over and over I read the speech out loud to myself. Then I started memorizing two sentences at a time. Once I had the first two sentences memorized, I would memorize the next two and so on and so on. I kept this going all night until I was exhausted, but I had that speech wired into my brain. The next morning I did a couple more rehearsals before I took off to catch the bus, and was pleased that I had mastered this.
Later that morning, I got a little nervous as I sat through book reports that seemed like they had a lot of money put into it. Costumes, fancy colorful posterboards, supersized pictures, handouts for the kids, and I started to get a little nervous. However, when it came time to give the report and Dr King's speech to the class, I delivered. Not looking down at the papers in front of me once, I did my best to lower my voice and speak his words, Word for word. Everyone was amazed, the teacher was teary eyed, I even got called on for an encore after the last presentation of the day to recite the speech again. I did not have one picture, no handouts, it was just myself exposed to the room. My hard work from the night before had paid off....my grade on the book report- A+
HARD WORK
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