My First Rally Speech

 I spoke at a rally at Bristol uni in support of the student encampment for Gaza today. There is a perpetual shortage of speakers at rallies at Bristol Uni, which is not the case for the bigger rallies outside the uni. IN those rallies, speakers have to be reminded to stick to their allotted time. At the last rally at the uni, I was asked if I wanted to speak, but I had declined. This time when the call for speakers went out, I foud  it difficult to say No. Gaza, and, more recently, the repression of the student protests in the US has been top of my mind. So, I thought why not channel some of that strength of feeling into a speech? I realise its a bit self-involved of me to write about my speech delivery and it makes me feel like I gave the speech just for the attention. Well, I would be lying if the attention was not a factor in my decision to give a speech, even if it was a minor factor. I realised rally speaking is a different kettle of fish compared to seminar speaking and I think I spoke too fast. There is a temptation to speak fast for effect, but if its much faster than your natural pace, you struggle to maintain the pace. It didn't help that I was shivering as I spoke because it was very nippy. And, some of it was plain old nerves. I know that people become better speakers with practice. I have watched students' rally speaking skills improve before my eyes.