My best friend was got married this summer. He’d asked me to be his best man.
We’d originally met in college, and I was there during the early years of his relationship with his wife.
I was excited for them to get married. The part I wasn’t looking forward to was the speech I had to give—public speaking is tough.
I felt a lot of pressure to deliver a really great speech. My friend was hoping for it to be funny, with little stories from our time together as friends. However, I wanted it to be audience-appropriate and heart-warming too. I wanted everyone to be pleasantly surprised by some clever humour and touching moments. I had set my sights high.
Well, I didn’t end up writing it until a week before the wedding (I mean, I only had over a year to prepare) …
But I guess I work well under pressure; I managed to get something fairly structured down on paper (the notes app actually—which I then printed out). I broke it down into sections and rehearsed each one out loud in my kitchen for a few hours. This really helped me refine the flow, add little lines or jokes to make it even better, and most of all I was able to learn it off without having to keep referring to the printed sheets. Preparation is key. To make it look effortless you’ve gotta put the work in.