Strangely Calm

I was preparing for a huge jolt as I screwed up my stamina to touch the electric barbed wire of school work (okay, that's quite a simile), getting ready to feel like 'butter spread across too much bread' (or is it 'scraped' instead of 'spread'?) as I get back into all the busy-ness and chaotic-ness and so-many-things-in-my-head-I'm-going-insane-please-just-let-me-go-to-sleep-ness of life after Christmas Break.

And so, because I was bracing myself for impact, I was surprised when things weren't nearly as bad as I thought they were going to be. In fact, I feel relaxed. I feel like I can focus, and do things because I want to instead of rushing on because I don't have time to stop.

My most time-consuming courses are probably History and Literature, but my classes didn't meet this week. I also didn't have Spanish or Geography to worry about. Which is, y'all, pure coolness. Not that I don't like Spanish or Geography.

See, I really enjoy my classes, but when they all pile up it's hard to enjoy all those subjects that on their own are fascinating but with a gazillion and two more things to do become brain-grinding.

I have a public speaking Chapter meeting this Friday, and currently we're working on impromptu. In competition, this means you are given a topic and have one minute to prepare a two minute speech, which you give to the judges immediately afterward. It requires a large amount of training, and to be honest I am really not comfortable in the limited-prep speaking field. If you think about it though, this is the type of public speaking that we use the most (conversations, for example). But to structure something entirely in your brain, without writing it down, and then giving a speech, is a lot harder and a little more pressurized than just talking to someone.

The impromptu is probably the only thing that has caused some stress this week, but I really think it's under control. We have a great group in our Chapter. I'm one of the student leaders--SLs--, and usually I get out of the homework because I (and others) are the ones who lead and prepare the meetings. But our sponsor (i.e. adult leader in the Chapter) wanted us SLs to do it this time because we all need impromptu practice. Extemporaneous speeches, interpretations...yeah, we do that all the time. But impromptu...let's see. The only time I've actually done an impromptu assignment is last year in Chapter before I was an official student leader. Yeah, so I'm expecting to bomb. But like I said, we're all friends at Chapter. =) If it won't kill me, it'll make me stronger.

Looking forward to watching Cars 2 tomorrow night for the first time ever! Cars is one of my favorite movies, so this one had better be good!