Speech Night - Marcus Loving

Keeners has a weekly tradition that takes place every Monday night after dinner.  Every Monday all of the keeners and coaches meet up in the conference room at wilderness tours.  Each keener is either assigned or has already been assigned a speech topic of which they will have to talk about.  Sometimes these speeches are assigned spontaneously so that the victim has no time to prepare while other times we are given a topic over the weekend so that we can prepare a speech.  During speech night there is an MC and critique. the MC announces who will be speaking next and generally controls the flow of the conversations for the night.  The critique speaks after everyone else.  They give constructive criticism on the speeches and give tips on how they could be better.  Each monday the speeches become noticeably better as each keener gains confidence and becomes closer to the rest of the keeners.  The speech topics also become more personalized  to the person giving them as the weeks progressed and the coaches got to know the respective keeners better.

The first speech night will be all about introduction and getting used to the feeling of speaking in front of people. The next speech night that our group had was a bit trickier.  All the keeners were assigned random topic right before they had to speak.  This was to help the keeners expand their comfort zones and to be able to talk about something that they don't necessarily have extensive knowledge on.  Each keener gave their speech and though there were some laughs everyone did much better than the first night that they had to talk.  It was also evident that people were much more comfortable in their new environment than they had been on the first day.  All of the keeners were growing closer and being supportive of each other.

The third and final speech night is by far the most in depth and complex night.  Now that the coaches have gotten to know each and every one of the keeners on a personal level they are able to create speeches personalized to each person's knowledge and talents.  After this the keeners are also required to give a farewell speech.  This speech will tell others about what they learned during their time at keeners, memorable moments, and what they will take away from their time here.  Each keener had something they had learned and many memorable moments to share.  Whether it was a tip or trick about kayaking or something less tangible that they gained here each and every keener has been changed for the better and will leave with the added confidence and connections to other people from all around the world.  Through speech night all of the keeners were able to express these changes and make their feelings of happiness and confidence known to the rest of us.