320. What It Takes

I witnessed a lot of courage last weekend. It wasn’t someone running into a burning building to save a child or anything like that. It was instead a quiet, personal courage that’s easy to overlook. But just because such examples of bravery aren’t given much notice doesn’t make them any less exceptional.

The courage I’m referring to was displayed by local students last Saturday at the Conference Speech competition and last Sunday at the Boone Central Variety Show. Nothing about speech and music is life and death, but courage is essential for a range of everyday situations, including speaking and performing for an audience.

My son Thomas has been in speech for several years but Lori and I haven’t been able to make it to many of his meets. And unfortunately, we were late getting to the meet Saturday. But we did get to hear him and five other finalists, including his teammate Cameron Schilousky, compete in the final round of extemp. “Extemp” is of course short for “extemporaneous,” a category of Speech in which contestants only have an hour to research a topic and give a presentation about it.

Talk about pressure! All extemp topics are timely and complex, and persuasive arguments can be made for and against them all. Extemp speakers must find articles in magazines and on the web regarding their topic and then decide where they stand. And then they get to stand up and explain why.

It takes courage to stand in front of judges and give any kind of a speech. But to basically have to make it up as you go, following hastily scrawled notes on a small slip of paper is especially daunting. All six finalists were visibly nervous, but every one strode confidently in front of the judges when their time to speak came. One judge even commented that unlike many speakers who are reluctant to come forward, the extemp kids never hesitate.

I was genuinely impressed by these young people. Public speaking is one of the greatest fears people have, and no one would think less of any of these kids if they chose a less arduous pursuit.

But it takes at least as much courage to stand up in front of a crowd and sing a solo or dance. And that’s what a number of talented students did at the variety show Sunday. As a musician I know how nerve-wracking this can be and my hat’s off to every student who performed. They demonstrated talent, love for what they did and, like all the students on the Speech team, a commendable amount of courage.

Courage is a big part of sports, too, of course – so big a part that we sometimes overlook the courage of our young musicians and speakers. But they strive just as hard as our athletes do.

Underneath it all, all our young people are brave, whether they’re athletes, musicians, actors, orators or just adolescents. It takes a lot of courage, after all, to grow up.

Our community is fortunate to have dedicated teachers, administrators, parents and volunteers helping our children face their fears and spread their wings. But it’s ultimately these young people themselves who must have the courage to embrace the many opportunities that await them. The world is a scary place where a lot of things can and do go wrong. The courage and the dedication to doing things well that our young people display in so many activities, though, makes me confident they’ll have what it takes to overcome whatever challenges their chosen paths in life may present.

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