Friday, July 28th, 2006
whew…talk about amazing grace!
mayo na lang gid, wala gakawad-an si Lord sang grace! so this is another of my stories about me and His wonderful grace.
monday evening 2 weeks ago, i was approached,ginhambalan, kinulit, pinilit, encouraged, etc. to join the Iloilo Federation of the Junior Philippine Institute of Accountants (IFJPIA) Accountancy Week Extemporaneous Speaking contest. This contest was scheduled on the wednesday of the same week. So, I sort of agreed, but I guess the occassion and the urgency to prepare was lost on me because it was only when I got home when I realized that almost all accountancy students of 4 other universities would be listening to my made-up instantaneous speech. Much more embarassing to me, I didn’t have any experience on extemporaneous speaking!(Yes, I’m a writer, but writers do have the chance to erase what they’ve wrote, but speakers can’t take back what they said. Add to the odds against me my slow thinking skills, and my tendency to grasp at straws when I look for the right word.) It was going to be my first time, and I thought I could only hope that it wouldn’t be the most embarassing moment in life if ever I couldn’t answer the question!
The next day, I was already conjuring up plans like being purposefully late so I could save face legally: by default. But I knew it would be more embarassing to give my word and not do anything at all, and I knew I’d like to "die" trying. a friend offered to give me possible topics which might come out, like current events connected to business, the economy and accountancy, but it came around…the next day.
Wednesday morning, after our accounting class taught by our dean, she suggested that we have a preview of the other contestants’ presentations. we viewed first the modern dance, then the vocal solo, the vocal duet, then…it was suggested that I be grilled. *uh oh*.
Dean asked me what could I say about the current war between Lebanon and Israel. I uhm…paused a lot, beat around the bush, whined in between paragraphs, and then stopped. The whole of this stupid run through took only 2 something minutes! What a very cultured way to embarass myself in front of our respectable dean and 37 other intelligent junior accountancy students from CPU. I was panicky, and thought that if I could not even make a straight speech in front of just 38 people, how could I possibly answer in front of a hundred other people, in a very public place such as the activity center in SM City?
So I went home 2 hours later than the time I intended to, and hadn’t practiced properly at all. I fixed myself at home, headed on the SM City. While riding the jeepney, it paused for so long just to get a jeepney pass. I was steamed, and at that time, it was barely 15 minutes til default time(if you have gone to my house, you’ll know how far away from SM City it is,especially when you’re running late), and I didn’t have any plans to default anymore. The irony is, when I got to SM City, I was the first contestant to arrive.
Each of the contestant were given 3 minutes to prepare, and 3 minutes to deliver. My question was about corporate social responsibility. I guess I made the introduction and greetings to the speech well, but the mistake I made was that I spoke too fast for my mouth to translate what my mind was still formulating. I gave a very "unoperational" definition of environment, which was what I thought the corporation should take care of for it to fulfill its corporate social responsibility. All the while I was speaking, I was curling and uncurling the rolled paper containing my question unconsciously to vent my nervousness.
When I finally looked up to the main judge, her eyebrows were really knit tighter together, and I figured that either she must be really trying hard to understand the incongruent parts of my speech, or she didn’t like my answer at all. So I just looked, paused for more than 3 seconds, and said thank you. After returning to my seat on stage, I couldn’t look up because I felt embarassed. After the contest, I vowed to get out of SM City before the announcement of winners came, but I was enthralled by other Literary Musical Contests so I stayed. I finally decided to go home after all the contests and before the announcement, but some of my friends held me back because they thought I had a chance to win. So there I was hoping for third place, the least.
When the third placer was announced, my face fell because I thought I didn’t have any chance anymore. This is the part where God’s grace is revealed. I was announced as the second placer! It was really all by His grace, and I couldn’t think of any other plausible reason why I won.
The moral of this story is that: in my weakness, God’s power is made perfect. And that His grace in incomprehensible.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
