Farewell Talk

You know when you picture something in your mind and the real thing turns out NOTHING like how you pictured it. Ya, I know the feeling!

Today I was in my parents home ward and I gave my farewell talk. I have been so worried about what I was going to say I didn't even think about anything else. Once I was sitting on the stand it all felt so real. This was my farewell talk, I was leaving on Wednesday, and I am really, FINALLY, going to be a missionary. My head was spinning! I was thinking at a hundred miles per hour. I was the last speaker which was great, because I had a lot that I wanted to say. But by the time the speaker before me ended, I realized I had about 15 minutes, and the musical number still had to go. During the musical number I am thinking about what I should cut out because I know my talk, the way it was written, would have been too long.

The musical number was over and it was time for me to get up and speak. I honestly don't even know how to put into words what happened after that. I was wearing heels, and my ankle twisted a little over my left heel, and I started to fall to my left. I stood up on my right foot trying to catch myself, only to fall even more to my left, almost landing on the ground in front of the bishopric. Luckily I never did fall all the way down, but based on the congregations reaction you would have thought I did. I throw myself up and stand in front of the podium at a loss of words. Everybody did a collective gasp, and then fell silent. The next few minutes were a blur, but my mom told me later that the first thing I said was, "Well that was embarrassing, I hope I don't do that on my mission!"

I honestly don't know how I made it the whole way through my talk, I fumbled so much at the beginning before I could really jump into my talk that by the time I had finished telling my intro story about my Nauvoo trip my time was basically up. This is when I remembered that I had to cut out a lot of my talk based on time, so I start scanning the page looking for what I need to keep. I tell a story from Young Womens, then I actually talk about what my talk was one, which was blessings from perseverance, and finally find my way to the end of the talk. I bear a short testimony because I was over time and still probably completely beet red.

Once I sat down I lost it! The closing hymn started and I couldn't stop shaking from the silent laughing I was doing. The guy I was sitting at laughed too because I was shaking the hymn book so bad. I looked down at my family and Staci and could tell they saw me laughing because they were laughing just as hard. I had to cover my mouth and bury my face for the majority of the song because I was just so embarrassed.

Lots of people came up to talk to me afterwards to say goodbye. Most of them told me how excited they were for my homecoming talk in 18 months and asked me how I was going to top this!

And now, from now on, I will forever be known to Vintage Ranch Ward as the girl who fell on the stand before her farewell talk. Great!