Is this thing even on?

This isn't a polished copy, but I needed to crank it out today... So I did.

Evaluate a significant experience or achievement that has meaning for you.

I love microphones. I love the sound of their static when you take them too close to a speaker, and I love finesse needed with the less expensive devices to know where hold them for optimum sound quality. I discovered this at an early age; I was in fourth grade, and my teacher had me read at one of my school's Masses. You don't know what you started, Mrs. Evans, because ever since then I have sought out and volunteered for every possible opportunity to speak to a crowd through whatever means possible. Over time, the microphone became an ally, a valuable tool through which I learned to communicate in a way I don't have access to every day. So, when I found out early in my high school career that I would be expected to make a five minute speech in junior year, it became my second most looked-forward-to event. The first, I think, was summer vacation.

When the time finally came, I wrote my speech, presented it, stammered a little bit, and got an A. Along with a group of other juniors from my school, I entered the Concord Rotary Four Way Speech Contest to see what would happen. (To ruin the suspense, I came in second.) One Thursday night, the eleven of us gradually arrived, trailing our parents and our nerves, holding folded and crumpled and highlighted speeches in our hands, mouthing phrases that we didn't want to forget.

We all waited for our turns in a back room, and the waiting seemed to be the most stressful part of the night. I tried to calm myself down by helping my friends to relax, and I had a few of them read me their speeches since I wouldn't be able to be in their audience. What I heard was amazing. People I spent every day with told me personal stories or success or failure that I never could have guessed at. A contest, a stage, and a microphone let them share their thoughts like nothing else had.

That speech was one of the highlights of my junior year because I had the chance to share something original, something that came directly out of my own mind, with a group of strangers who actually connected to what I had to say. I also got to watch as my friends, many for the first time, found out what it was like to present to a crowd. Giving a speech behind a microphone becomes an entirely new form of communication between a speaker and an audience, which is why microphones have become almost magical for me. They draw attention and help teach stage presence. They narrow the gap between speakers and audiences, as if each listener is being addressed individually. They still force me to speak slowly and to leave behind my Bostonian tendency to slur over consonants, but I love them nonetheless. With them, I see how one eloquent speaker and one well-formed idea can unite a roomful of people.

That contest let me present my thoughts so that others also understood things that I had come to realize. In the same way I have become more complete by listening to the ideas of others, I hope that someone, someday, may find a different way to think about their own ideas because of me.