Pixabay.com

Some of the hardest times in my life were some of my best times. They are the times that I learned the most. They are the times I found love and lost love while facing myself. For me, one of those times was Speech class. It was way back when my age (71) was reversed. 16-17 years old. 10th grade. A TERRIFYING class. Yet the teacher was so fascinating. We debated using Robert’s Rules of Order; we argued and passed to legalize marijuana, prostitution, equal rights, and so many more restrictive laws and lean into misogynistic, bigoted ways. The arguments were from both sides as we were required to argue them from either side as the teacher assigned. I found all of it so exciting. Listening to everyone’s speeches intrigued me. The teacher’s input fascinated me. But one guy, who was a year ahead of me, was wow! I can’t even come up with a word that described his ability to take a topic and unfold something that seemed cut and dried to an eye-opener set of reasoning that left me breathless.

Somehow he ended up my boyfriend. For three whole months, I got to see how this guy thought in every way. Then he went back to his original girlfriend, who he is still married to, as I understand it. So I feel good at this age that he got such a sweet person to devote his life to. I feel lucky to have known him for that short time, but the Speech class became even harder for me after our break-up. Speech-making turned me into a puddle of sweat and nervousness. Seeing that beautiful man every day brought me to tears nearly every day.

Even after two years of Speech class, I find speeches the most horrid things to do. I did get to the point where I could do a little acting, I did like my drama class. And at one point, after a great amount of grief, I got to the point of loving to sing solos, anywhere. But it has been so long ago now that I think I’d have to relive the whole process to get up and sing alone. Give me a choir or chorus—no dancing or giving long speeches. I’ll save those for times when no one is watching!

Per Linda G. Hill–

Here are the JusJoJan Rules:

1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honor system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.

3. Please pingback or link to the daily prompt. To pingback, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Pingbacks only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not pingback. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.