Surreal

Hello Again!
Yes, I've been AWOL. A lot has happened, but I'm not going to spend lots of time updating about the past two months; I'm just going to start up again. I know that's going to drive all three of my readers crazy :)

Last night I had a chance to speak to about 300 junior highers at Berean Baptist in Burnsville for their last night of a VBS-like week for kids going in to 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. I have not been the sole speaker to any group larger than 30 in at least two years! I was nervous for that reason, and I really didn't know how I was going to do. I think it went alright.

Of my own accord I do not have any connection with Berean. But I got connected with them because their Jr High youth pastor Jesse called my friend Georgia looking for guest speakers. She put me on a list of top recommendations for jr. high and high school! That in itself blew me away! I really don't feel like I have enough experience to be put in that category, but I digress.

I asked them if I could get a copy of the recording so I could go back and listen to myself and feel stupid. Don't tell me not to, everyone does. If you've ever heard your own voice you know what I'm talking about. We sound differently in our heads than we do to others, and it takes some getting used to. Add to that all the talk ticks* we have in our speech patterns, and listening to yourself for 30 minutes becomes a very humbling experience. I just listened to it, and realistically I don't think it's that bad, but it still makes me wonder why in the world anyone lets me talk. ever.

I had 20-25 minutes in the schedule. When he asked if that would be okay, I kind of knew he meant of I felt like I would be able to fill it. Yes sir, not a problem. Bloomquists are not known for their terse speaking engagements, so I knew I would by nature write something for 45 minutes. So I desperately wanted to prove to myself and Jesse that I could stick to the time frame. I knew there was a clock I could see from the stage, so I was going to rely on that. I must be done by 8:30. I hadn't looked at the clock right when I got up there, but I didn't think that mattered. 8:30 was my time. I looked up part-way through; it read 9:12. What?!?! There is no way I have already been speaking for over an hour!! Then I remembered overhearing someone say the clock was wrong. Perfect time to remember such a thing. Since I didn't know when I had started, I had no idea how much time I had used, aside from my internal clock, which is only so reliable. Or not so reliable. I decided I just had to keep going, albeit quickly, and hope for the best. I finished and looked at my phone in the back: 30 minutes on the button! Thank you hereditary speaking methods!

I love speaking to youth because it forces me to stay limber. Adults can get so caught up in the theoretical (especially college students), but if you're not applicable to life in the moment of a jr. higher, you're never going to reach them. I hope I get to do it more in the future, it was fun. Maybe next time I won't say "guys" and "like" so much. Then again, who am I kidding?

Coley

*"talk ticks" are those things in our speech that our ears ignore until there are so many of them it becomes the only thing we hear, i.e. like, um, so, uh, ya know, but, yeah. or my favorite, "but um like yeah, right?" Thank you Mr. Schaefer of SMHS.