My Kids Will Have An Interesting Life...

All I can say is that I'd better marry a person who's at least a little bit more normal than I am or else my children will,
a) be complete freaks of nature
b) have to grow up with two very strange parents
or
c) all of the above

Then again, if I marry someone who's normal, then I might encounter some problems getting along with him... I wouldn't have anyone to talk to. Oh well. 'Tis a paradox I may as well just forget about, and simply pray for my children.

What prompted this interesting discussion, you ask?

Last night, my 4/yo brother was asking me to tell him a story (I told him one story to have him keep up while we were on a walk, and he hasn't stopped asking me for a story since.) when my mom announced:

Mom: No! Not tonight. Because she'll be doing an Interp for you tomorrow.

For all the non-speech-and-debate people, an Interpretation (Interp) is the best speech ever (if you're an Extemper, please don't kill me!)

Seriously though, for all the non-speech-and-debate people, an Interpretation (Interp) is a speech you perform dramatically.

Interps can be a lot of work. You have to cut a piece of literature into a script, memorize the script, block (add movement) to the script, characterize, and then work on other fun rule-related stuff. In short, this isn't something you want to write and memorize the night before.

And my mom has just sprung on me that I will, indeed, be writing and memorizing an as-of-yet-unknown piece of literature the night before.

My reaction: What?

Another note: My family is doing a homeschool co-op with some families who are considering the curriculum that my family used during my elementary education. They're studying ants right now. So my mom thought it would be "fun" for them to see an Interp of the Ant and the Grasshopper (Aesop) instead of just reading.

And, being the resident Interper with loads of time on my hands (snort... that's not even funny), I was elected to do it.

Did I mention I have a problem with Impromptu speaking? Just check out this post to be sure, but I seriously dislike it.

I just don't tell everyone that. And so, I'm being "strongly encouraged" to compete Impromptu next year and I taught a class on Impromptu speaking a week ago. Ha! If only they knew. But more and more I'm finding I probably don't have a problem.

In said class on Impromptu, I unexpectedly told an Impromptu story. In the above post, I was I competed Impromptu (not Apologetics, like I thought I'd be able to... correction, like I was TOLD I'd be able to...) I'm constantly giving speeches I've been given less than 4 days to prepare for (yeah, I went to an assisted living home with my speaking group that somebody cancelled for at the last minute, so I wrote a speech the night before and attempted to give it that day) I wrote my first-ever D.I. and performed it in three day... it's just sad how many times I've had to do this.

So, to make this post all the more random, after deciding I don't hate Impromptu that bad after all, I realized how spoiled my brothers are as it comes to reading.

My mom and my sisters and I have always read aloud to the younger family members. We've always used voices, and expression.

But now?

My brother now asks for stories like Winnie the Pooh, but expects a full-out presentation. The funny part is, he usually gets it. I've memorized so many children's books as Interps that I can usually just Interp my stories (and if I don't, we all do very dramatic voices and stuff like that).

So, I was thinking that and took it a step further. My children will probably grow up with that kind of dramatic reading/speaking. They'll come into their library storytimes as little three-year-olds and say, "Mommy, she doesn't read the stories fun like you do."

What am I getting myself into?

That and the fact that my children will probably have an overdose of the verbiage gene. So, maybe they won't say that. Maybe they'll say, "Mother dearest, she doesn't entertain us to the same degree as do you when you read aloud."

To conclude this reflective, dangerously unproductive post, I will say that, whether my poor children are freaks of nature, or I marry a somewhat normal person or a strange thing like me, I have great fun doing these speeches. So, I suppose I need to get over my Impromptu stigma and my "abnormal" stigma and just do the stupid interp. Right now. Before I forget the whole thing.

Sparks of illumination,
C.