on This was probably the weakest of my four speeches. It was a little repetitive without enough solid content to stretch for four minutes. I should have had some more sources, run it through a few more times and been overall more prepared.
on My politics professors believe that you can easily judge the level of development in a nation by looking at the behavior and treatment of the women living there. I believe that an easier way to judge development in any given area is to stand on a street and count the bikes. Today I’ll be classifying three stages of development, underdeveloped, with very high levels of bike usage without bike infrastructure, developed, with high bike usage with bike infrastructure, and flux, a transitional phase where bike use is seen as a signification of status and there is neither high bike use or infrastructure. Underdeveloped nations & bike usage. From Buenos Aires to bangladesh it’s easy to trace the pattern of industrialized nations with low GDPs having incredibly high bike usage rates. The reason for this is fairly self evident, bikes are cheaper, easier to maintain,Developed nations & bike usage- At this point in global development, the bulk of bike usage in highly developed areas tends to be concentrated in metropolitan centers as opposed to entire countries, however bike usage through northern Europe is .The flux nation’s, bike usage seen as status, with a few exceptions- cars are the norm, bikes are seen as a sign of low economic class.
on Classifying three stages of development, underdeveloped, with very high levels of bike usage without bike infrastructure, developed, with high bike usage with bike infrastructure, and flux, a transitional phase where bike use is seen as a signification of status and there is neither high bike use or infrastructure.
on I actually didn’t really use either for this speech. Again, I wanted it to be fresh and in the moment. Usually I’m only comfortable giving a speech if I have it pretty well scripted (or its in a debate round-limited prep was never my comfort zone outside of debate) but I figured if I was going to make the leap and tell my story, I might as well make the leap and do it without a script.
on Honestly I never expected to give a speech about my mom. I’ve had to tell that story a few times now, to casa, to my department chair, for random reasons like explaining why I can’t take classes m/w/f or why I have my financial aid set up the way I do so I also didn’t expect a speech about it to be that emotional. But there’s a difference between sitting in an office and stating things factually and standing in front of an audience to tell a story. Still, I think I held it together pretty well all things considered. I think it was time. As far as the speaking, organization and quality of the message was, I’d probably give it a solid 7/10.
on 
on 
on 
on Preface: unlike the rest of my speeches I didn’t think of this speech in a five paragraph essay format, meaning none of the posts regarding it will be very coherent or reflect the speech in it’s entirety. From the moment I decided to talk about what I did, I knew it wasn’t something I could have down perfectly memorized or prepared. I knew I’d have the PowerPoint to keep me on track but I wanted the freedom to talk about whatever felt right in the moment without going up with a precise list of what I had to say. Sooo the outline is less of an outline and more like this:
Intro. Not about bikes- authenticity + advocacy.
About me- finding the good.
Trauma as a tool.
Don’t really have a structured format mostly just don’t be an asshole because your past sucked and leave the world a better place than you found it?