“Please welcome Laura Noring!”
Taking a deep breath Laura smoothed her clothes and stepped on stage; walking across with a slight limp. She pasted what she thought was as convincing smile on her face; hoping to hide how nervous she was from the 3,000 students and faculty in the auditorium. As she reached the podium, she turned and faced the crowd of unfamiliar faces.
Grasping the microphone Laura adjusted it and cleared her throat. The audience so silent she couldn’t help but wonder if they were able to hear her heart pounding and her knees knocking. She had known that talking about this would be hard, but she wanted to share her story and help educate people. Looking into the crowd she found her husband sitting in the front row. Their eyes met and he smiled, giving her the thumbs up sign, which gave her the confidence she needed. Her eyes slowly moved over the crowd as she gave them a genuine smile, before starting her speech.
“First of all I’d like to thank Principal Avaya for allowing me to talk to all of you today about a subject that is near and dear to my heart.” Laura turned and acknowledged the principal as the audience clapped.
“Today I’m here to talk to you about the dangers associated with drinking and driving.” She paused and looked out at the audience for dramatic effect. “About 3 years ago, I almost lost my life because I was hit by a drunk driver. They didn’t think I was going to live, let alone be walking and talking a few years later, but I was one of the lucky; there are many others who are not…”
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The above was written for Trifecta’s weekly single word writing challenge. Here is this week’s challenge:
This week’s word is:
1 a : a feeling or consciousness of one’s powers or of reliance on one’s circumstances <had perfect confidence in her ability to succeed> <met the risk with brash confidence>
b : faith or belief that one will act in a right, proper, or effective way <have confidence in a leader>
2 : the quality or state of being certain : certitude <they had every confidence of success>
3 a: a relation of trust or intimacy <took his friend into hisconfidence>
c : support especially in a legislative body <vote ofconfidence>
Hi Lisa! Soooo…true story? It seems very realistic!
It isn’t, but I’m glad I was able to write it in a way that made it sound like it could be!
A thoughtful take on the response. I enjoyed reading it.
Thanks Ruby!
I could feel her nervousness – I swear my mouth went dry just reading it. That would take courage to talk about such a personal experience. But if it makes even one person not drive drunk, it would be worth it.
Thank you for the kind feedback!
Great response to the prompt. Is this based on something that you witnessed? It has a very real feel to it. Nice job and thanks for sharing with us.
Thank you! This wasn’t based on something I witnessed either…just off the top of my head!
wow very deep sounds like you have a good perspective good stuff !!