I am
a nervous Nelly when it comes to public speaking. I'm not quite sure what the
deal is but I panic all the way up to the point of me walking up in front of
the class to give my speech. Then something comes over me and I do what I've
practiced over and over and over again. I feel really bad for poor ol' Sam who
just finished listening to my "how to personally prepare for a
disaster" speech all yesterday! Once I get done with this class I'll make
sure to give him an A+ in speech, for memorizing my speeches with me! Oh and I
should throw in here that I am so nervous before my speech I have my friend
from college practice with me some more! OH GOODNESS BLESS THEIR SOULS! lol But
I wasn't going to blog about this bitter sweet class until I realize that I
want to be able to look back on the topics that I spoke about. The one in
particular is "My favorite place: Jet Stream Travel." Jet Stream
Travel was a travel agency that my grandma Patsy used to own. When I was a
little girl I was able to visit the travel agency and play everything around. I
was a little spoiled by grandma (my mom calls it the 1st child syndrome, where
grandma spoils the first child in all of her children’s families. Boy oh Boy
did I luck out) so this was my speech I presented as my favorite place.
"Jet Stream Travel! Probably
the best name for a travel agency my grandma could have come up with. Some of
you may be thinking, your favorite place is a travel agency? Well, this travel
agency had some perks. As a child this travel agency was my office and I was
the boss! Apparently, even the boss gets into trouble some times.
Today I’m going to tell you the
childhood memories of mischief I created with the decor, in the back room, and
at the travel agents desk, that made Jet Stream Travel my favorite place.
The office was full of traveling
décor from clocks displaying the times of different destinations, a wall full
of various luxury traveling magazines, but that wasn't that décor that I created
trouble with, it was this blow up globe that was probably almost as big as me at the time. So I did what any 6 year old little mind could think of do with
it. I kicked it, right into important paperwork. You would think I would have
calmed down and stopped there but oh no not me. I found a boomerang! So, I
threw it! Sad to say, it didn’t come back. So once the wrath of grandma came down I
would hide myself in the back room of the office.
The backroom was where all of the
airline ticket printed out. It had a mirror that I could look out and spy on
all of the customers. As I spied on the customer I would document where they
were going, how many people, and the color of their hair. Then I would decide
if they should get to go. Once I decided they shouldn’t get to go on a family
vacation, I swipe the airline tickets out of the machine and threw them in the
trash. It wasn’t until grandma came and realized the tickets were gone and
where they had disappeared to that I was move up to an empty travel agents
desk, where grandma could keep an eye on me.
The travel agents desk became my desk;
where I would browse through the magazines circling places that my pretend
customer should visit. Once the destination was chosen I would pretend to type
their travel reservations. Surprisingly they always seemed to go to Disney
Land. It wasn’t until grandma realized that I was typing on an actual
reservation that my computer was magically down and wouldn’t be working for the
rest of the day, somehow I managed and hand wrote my reservations till the end
of the day.
By hearing about the mischief I created
with the décor, in the backroom, and at the travel agent’s desk, I hope you can
see how a travel agency can be my favorite place
And by the end of the day the perks
were my own name tag, a job well done and Jet Stream Travel as my favorite
place."
Oh
and for the personal preparedness speech I made a 72 hour kit off FEMA's website
and put it in the clear tote. (I have heard people use this, but I find this
container very impractical for a real life disaster for the sole fact I had a
hard time carrying it from the parking lot into class! Come on, put your kit in
a hiking pack) Sam was not to thrilled I was taking things out of our hiking
pack to put in my pathetic 72 hour kit but the visual aid was AWESOME! I must
remember to remind Sam the gas mask was a huge hit! :) 
