The speech season had come and gone. There were only three more tournaments to attend. When I woke up early the next morning I was less stressed out than I usually was for speech tournaments. At the regional tournament I was only going to be doing one of my events. Normally, I have to run around the whole school to get to my events in time. This time I would only have to preform in one single round of extemporaneous speaking. We were going to be traveling south. Hodgenville is located near Elizabethtown in central Kentucky. We packed up my mom's van with supplies and picked up my friends who were riding with us. Though I chatted away with my friends, I did get to notice things about the landscape by briefly looking out the window.
The landscape was similar to Florence. There were a few gently rolling hills, but it was mainly farmland. To get to Hodgenville you pass through Elizabethtown. If you continue further south you reach Cave City, which is the home of Mammoth Cave. Just as Cave City is the home of Mammoth Cave, Hodgenville is the birthplace of President Abraham Lincoln. The Abraham Lincoln Museum was very close to the school where the speech tournament was taking place. The area is very rural, but as I saw signs all throughout the school that the people are very proud to have President Lincoln born in there town. The tournament proved to be successful for me and was fairly laid back. I was one of two extemporaneous speakers and ended up getting runner up for the region. Now, there were only two tournaments to go.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
"Stars of Tomorrow" tournament: Florence, KY (38°59′36″N 84°38′33″W)
Like all of the other speech tournaments, getting from Louisville to Florence, KY takes over an hour. Most tournaments take up one full day and start as early as possible so that they can end at a reasonable time. The early starting time and the time it takes to get there results in me waking up extremely early and getting ready. The drive to Florence takes about one hour and twenty minutes. The area is closer to Cincinnati than it is to Louisville.With waking up so early and not having much success breaking into the finals at the last tournament, I was not very enthusiastic for this tournament. All the while, before leaving I practiced my pieces and loaded up the car with speech tournament essentials. The essentials include bottled water and my box filled with magazines and newspapers for extemporaneous speaking. It also includes lots and lots of junk food. One thing that I must bring with me to each and every one of my tournaments is a big bag of white chocolate. The tournament ended up being a successful one for KCD.
My drive to Florence was, to my relief, was not eventful.When we are driving so early in the morning the last thing we need is something to add to the stress of getting there on time. Like previous tournaments, when we left the house it was still dark. It was still December and my mom and I had to bundle up against the cold air. For the first half an hour I couldn't see anything because it was so dark. Once there was a little daylight I could make out the outline of trees. I could see patches of forested areas and an occasional farm. Though we were moving northeast, the landscape was similar to Louisville's. Florence was more rural than Louisville. The area was hilly, but like Louisville, the hills were gradual. They were nothing compared to the hills of eastern Kentucky. Almost anyone who has driven from Louisville to Cincinnati has seen the water tank that reads "Florence Y'all". Originally the water tank read "Florence Mall" but it was later changed. The mall that sits next to it houses stores like Macy's. The tournament took place and I ended up breaking into finals in all three of my events. This was the best tournament of the season for me.
My drive to Florence was, to my relief, was not eventful.When we are driving so early in the morning the last thing we need is something to add to the stress of getting there on time. Like previous tournaments, when we left the house it was still dark. It was still December and my mom and I had to bundle up against the cold air. For the first half an hour I couldn't see anything because it was so dark. Once there was a little daylight I could make out the outline of trees. I could see patches of forested areas and an occasional farm. Though we were moving northeast, the landscape was similar to Louisville's. Florence was more rural than Louisville. The area was hilly, but like Louisville, the hills were gradual. They were nothing compared to the hills of eastern Kentucky. Almost anyone who has driven from Louisville to Cincinnati has seen the water tank that reads "Florence Y'all". Originally the water tank read "Florence Mall" but it was later changed. The mall that sits next to it houses stores like Macy's. The tournament took place and I ended up breaking into finals in all three of my events. This was the best tournament of the season for me.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Beginning of the Speech season: Bowling Green, KY (36°58′54″N 86°26′40″W)
As we are now in the beginning of Spring, I think it is a good time to log in many of my adventures which occurred during the past winter. Unfortunately I did not do much traveling out of state. However, I was able to explore much of Kentucky through our school's speech program. I was fascinated at how different many of the towns and rural schools were from my home town of Louisville, KY. The first and last of the seven tournaments that I attended took place at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky. This tournament was named the WKU Hilltopper Junior Tournament for a very good reason. The landscape where the town is located was very hilly indeed. It was amazing to see how the gently rolling hills of my back yard could transform into the dramatic ones of Bowling Green within a few hours drive. The last tournament of the season was the Kentucky High School Speech League Junior State Tournament which was also in Bowling Green. The car ride there and the actual tournament proved to be very eventful. Though I did not get to explore the town as much as I would have liked during these visits, due to the events that were at hand, I did make basic observations of the area and of the campus.
Our journey started out from Louisville at six o'clock. The drive would take us about two and a half hours. I was weary and wished more than anything to go to sleep because I had woken up at five in the morning to get ready. Nonetheless I was excited for the first tournament of a long string of speech events that would span the upcoming weeks. As we reached the outskirts of Louisville it was still dark, but under the street lamps I could see the outlines of trees that were barren with the freezing temperatures. The farther we drove the more forested the landscape became. The surroundings were also gradually getting more hilly. Though the hills were not reaching a mountainous height, they were still high enough to create valleys. These valleys are used by farmers. Towards the end of our drive we entered the town of Bowling Green. As we drove along College Street with its old Victorian- looking houses we saw the Cherry Hall at the top of the hill that we were now driving on. Once we reached the top we were right in front of Cherry Hall and could see the surrounding hills. The building itself is a beautiful structure with its white marble walls. The rooms in which the participants of the tournament were to preform their pieces in were scattered around the campus and in various buildings. This gave the students an opportunity to see a good chunk of the WKU campus. The ride back from the Hilltopper tournament was fairly uneventful, but the drive back form the KHSSL tournament, which was also at WKU, proved to be an experience. After the latter tournament, I was in low spirits because I had not made the final rounds in any of the events I was preforming. My mother stated that she was starting to doze off so we were going to stop at the next McDonald's to get a coffee. As we took the exit, the first thing we saw was a horse that was tied to a tree. At first I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Who would station their horse so close to the main road? Too curious to stop driving, we continued down the road that lead to the fast food restaurant. Right next to it was a wagon. It turned out that there was an Amish family who was selling their hand made baskets. As my friends (whom I had met at in the McDonald's) and I looked upon their merchandise, we started a conversation with the family. This was not only an experience that lightened my saturnine day but was also an opportunity for me to learn about a culture which was unfamiliar to me.
Our journey started out from Louisville at six o'clock. The drive would take us about two and a half hours. I was weary and wished more than anything to go to sleep because I had woken up at five in the morning to get ready. Nonetheless I was excited for the first tournament of a long string of speech events that would span the upcoming weeks. As we reached the outskirts of Louisville it was still dark, but under the street lamps I could see the outlines of trees that were barren with the freezing temperatures. The farther we drove the more forested the landscape became. The surroundings were also gradually getting more hilly. Though the hills were not reaching a mountainous height, they were still high enough to create valleys. These valleys are used by farmers. Towards the end of our drive we entered the town of Bowling Green. As we drove along College Street with its old Victorian- looking houses we saw the Cherry Hall at the top of the hill that we were now driving on. Once we reached the top we were right in front of Cherry Hall and could see the surrounding hills. The building itself is a beautiful structure with its white marble walls. The rooms in which the participants of the tournament were to preform their pieces in were scattered around the campus and in various buildings. This gave the students an opportunity to see a good chunk of the WKU campus. The ride back from the Hilltopper tournament was fairly uneventful, but the drive back form the KHSSL tournament, which was also at WKU, proved to be an experience. After the latter tournament, I was in low spirits because I had not made the final rounds in any of the events I was preforming. My mother stated that she was starting to doze off so we were going to stop at the next McDonald's to get a coffee. As we took the exit, the first thing we saw was a horse that was tied to a tree. At first I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Who would station their horse so close to the main road? Too curious to stop driving, we continued down the road that lead to the fast food restaurant. Right next to it was a wagon. It turned out that there was an Amish family who was selling their hand made baskets. As my friends (whom I had met at in the McDonald's) and I looked upon their merchandise, we started a conversation with the family. This was not only an experience that lightened my saturnine day but was also an opportunity for me to learn about a culture which was unfamiliar to me.
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