I didn’t post yesterday. Silly me, already wrecking my plan of posting on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. *dramatic sigh* However, I do have a reason. In fact, I would like to blog about why I couldn’t blog yesterday (this could get confusing) namely because I was gone all day.
I, and ten other homeschooled teenagers in my speech club, were asked to be interns this year. So with that preliminary stage finished, we now had to join together for some planning and bonding time.
I love speech club. Three years ago, two years ago even, I would never have thought I could say that. I suffered from horrible stage-fright most of my life. Stick me in front of a group of people and I would feel like I was dying. Now, although I’m still working out the kinks, I can really enjoy doing speeches for an audience, as long as I’m prepared. Being comfortable speaking took time but it also took being involved in a group that forced me to go outside my comfort zone while still being encouraging and helpful. Speech club is a great thing for us “unsocialized homeschoolers” and I am blessed by it.
Having a club of some sort is extremely helpful in highschool. It gives you something outside of your core classes (because most of us get sick of regular school by December) to look forward to each week. It can also be a fall-back for your identity. As teenagers, you are constantly questioning and searching for who you really are, and what you can really do.
I don’t mean to stick people in boxes here – I don’t consider myself a “speecher” just because I like speech club and do it. I think it’s a common myth that in high school you must be a “jock” or a “nerd” or a “gleek”, but having a club filled with friends who you trust and like is a wonderful fall back for when you’re discouraged or just tired of regular life. They won’t tell you who you are, but they’ll trust in you even when you don’t know.
I know several people in the speech club who I could show up at their house all hours of the night and they would let me in.
Having a community, a little data-base if you will, of trusted friends is important to anyone, whether you’re in highschool or past it.
I’d encourage you to “find your place.” Find something that you enjoy doing, whether it looks great on your resume or is a completely worthless hobby, and find other people who enjoy doing it. Create some new friends. Push yourself outside your comfort zone. In a few years, you’ll be glad you did.
