# The One Where you Try Something Scary

By [Oreoluwa's Musings](https://paragraph.com/@trc) · 2023-03-19

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Hi Friend! My name is Oreoluwa and after begging him for eons, Hozier has finally decided to release new music and that has made my week.

### Serendipity

Sometime last week, I received a message from a lecturer at my school. Usually, I don’t open these immediately, or for a few days, but for some reason I decided to check it out. It was an invitation to a Public Speaking competition. At first, I didn’t want to do it, because the caliber of people competing was top notch and tbh I wasn’t really sure I was up to it. But after a conversation with a friend, I decided to give it a go. So here’s how it went.

So the competition was structured in three stages: a preliminary round, semifinals, and finals. With your love and support, I was able to make it past the prelims, which was a round that was based on video engagement, as well as the decision of the judges. My topic was: “Why I hate Friday the 13th“. Here’s the transcript

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/1cb192254944360f781c26f0a496c205.png)

For the Semi-finals, the topic I was given was: “The Voice that changed my world“, and this round was going to be solely decided by the judges’ decision. I initially thought about doing a Joe Goldberg-like speech (I might still write it out though), buut I decided to go with something less stabby stabby instead. Here’s what I wrote:

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/fcfd9839be06d4be87dd13d5221dd956.png)

By God’s grace (_when you get this, text me 😏_) I made it through to the finals with the highest semis score. All well and good, but the finals were going to be live and I was up against some of the best speakers in the country. _Gulp._ After several attempts by my networks to disgrace me (smh Airtel and Glo 😒), I was able to deliver my speech, and at that point, all I could do was hope and pray…

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/20c1b8a270ba0da8df007dcd21c8b6ea.png)

And after an etetrnityyy of deliberation, the results were announced and…

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/850b059f4e63e85849a6937c3ad117a0.jpg)

And somehow, what started as a reluctant dabble ended up with me winning a competition I never imagined I could win. You really never know what will happen when you take a leap of faith sometimes. Also, a big congratulations to the legends Chulo and Keesh that participated in the tournament. It’s always an honor to hear them speak.

So this week I want you to do something challenging, without overthinking it. No thoughts about whether you can do it or whether you’re good enough. Just dive in and navigate the waters. You’ll find it’s easier and more satisfying this way. And in the unlikely event that things don’t go your way, you would’ve at least cleared all your doubts and learned a few new things. There are no wasted experiences.

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Well, that’s all for now, next week, I’ll be returning to the usual format and I have a pretty interesting issue if Our Stories lined up for you. Until then, I hope you have your best week yet.

Bless You,

Oreoluwa.

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*Originally published on [Oreoluwa's Musings](https://paragraph.com/@trc/the-one-where-you-try-something-scary)*