As Pretty as the Airport

For the second activity in my Speech class (Speecom) last monday, I was asked to deliver a speech. Topic of which depended on the speaker. This was where my weakness was found. I'm not very creative when it comes to choosing a topic. And I think, I just proved my point. Plus, there was the added pressure because majority of my classmates are graduating. (Read: very very good speakers) My friends and I are just brave enough, or should it be stupid, to enroll in the course as early as now. To make matters worse, my schedule of talking fell on the last day. I had two weeks to prepare but knowing how 'great' I am at budgeting time, I thought of my topic, wrote my speech, and did the accompanying PowerPoint at 1AM last Sunday. 5 hours later, I'm done and dizzy.

How can I measure up with Deborah Sy's "I asked God for a bike but I know He doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked Him for forgiveness" or Lina Domingo's "If you love someone, set them free. If they come back, set them on fire"? I wasn't able to squeeze my creative juices so I took my usual safe path - choosing a conventional and more-on-the-boring-side topic. It started like this, "Ever wondered why Douglas Adam's quote "As Pretty As the Airport" is rarely used? It's because it requires a certain level of standard to be fitting of it. It's not easy to make an airport appear impressive. It takes time, lots of money, effort, and creative ingenuity. Difficult, but not impossible."

Then the 6-minute speech followed...

Here's an actual excerpt of my speech:

"After unveiling the Top 3 Best Airports in the world, have you noticed that they all came from Asia? If they can do it, why can’t we? Imagine this. 

(DISCLAIMER: I copied this picture. I just forgot from which site. No copyright intended)

This is a picture of the actual corridor that leads the passengers alighting from the plane to the arrival section of NAIA. It’s plain, boring, and forgettable. You land on the Philippines and the first place you step on is somewhere forgettable. How's that for first impression, right? Now what if NAIA replaces the flooring with wood like this?

 Doesn’t this minor change make more impact? Or we could be very up to date. Let’s try the futuristic theme this time. 

A few tweaks in the flooring, the ceiling and the wallpapers and you have an entirely different story. Maybe one day, just maybe, if we try to go that extra mile to make our very own airport globally competitive, NAIA wouldn’t be so bad at all. Perhaps it can even redeem itself from all the negative remarks tourists talk about. Its future lies in our hands, as we are the future shapers of this country so it is our job to do something about it. We have to make it someday fitting of Douglas Adams' phrase “As pretty as the airport”."

[I would've shared a video of my performance if only Debo's fail of a USB cooperated. She didn't tell me it was full of virus! It corrupted the video]


 Personally, I wasn't satisfied. I knew I could've done something better had I prepared longer. Another disappointment right there... But like performers say, learn to cancel and just move on :)