Outline for an Anecdotal Speech

September 29, 2013
Outline for Anecdotal Speech

Topic: Not realizing how much something means to you until the moment is gone.

Specific Purpose: To inform the audience of how I was unaware of the fact that playing organized basketball meant a great deal to me until I realized I would never be able to participate in it again.

Thesis Statement: In life, stepping back and taking a second to appreciate what you have at the moment is crucial.

Introduction:
I. When a certain aspect of your life or just life in general is going great, it’s not until later that you realize how great it really was.
II. How many of you guys have wished you could relive a certain day or period of time or even just an event in your past?
III. In life, stepping back and taking a second to appreciate what you have at the moment is crucial.
IV. In the short amount of time I have today, I’m going to try and share my own experience of a moment in my life which I wish I would have appreciated more as it was passing by.

Transition: Basketball is a huge part of my life, but I obviously am not built to play in the big leagues.

Body:
I. My high school was not part of the upper divisions and therefore my odds of making the team and having a significant role on it were a lot higher.
A. My first two years of high school I was able to make my JV team and although it was enjoyable, I wasn’t as enthusiastic about it as I wanted to be.
B. This might be the reason why I decided to focus on my schoolwork during my junior year of high school because it was enforced upon us that this year was the most important.
C. My final year of high school, however, I made sure to give myself an undemanding set of classes so I would be able to experience being a senior on a sports team.
D. My game had improved as the years went by and I even had a growth spurt so I was able to make my Varsity team in my final year of high school.

Transition: Little did I know how much I would miss it when it was over with.

II. Our season couldn’t have gone by any better.
A. We ended up winning our league and were excited to make a big run into the playoffs.
B. It was a known fact that our rival would always be the ones to stop us from winning the title.
B.1. Against all odds, however, they ended up losing to a team called.
B.2. This seemed to be a good thing at first, but then we realized that all of our strategy was geared towards and we knew nothing about this new team.
C. With only one weekend left until our semi-final showdown with, there wasn’t much time to prepare a whole new game plan.
C.1. Coming off two great playoff wins, we were confident that we could take that momentum and be the first team in our school’s history to make it to the finals.
C.2. Thinking back to that day, I was so caught up in trying so hard to come out victorious that everything seems like a blur and the only thing I remember was how exhausted I was (I still have never ran as much as I did during those two hours).
III. We ended up losing the game by 9 points and the “if only”s started rushing to my head just seconds after looking up at the final scoreboard.
A. After shaking hands with all the players from the opposing team, the walk back to our locker room was one of the longest of my life.
B. I’m not embarrassed to say that all of my teammates including my friends shed tears because only then did we realize that our high school basketball careers were over

Transition: That might sound a little corny, but we all loved the game and had invested so much time in to reaching our goal and with us all going to college next year, the reality that we would soon go our separate ways struck.

Conclusion:
I. I’m glad to say that I still keep in touch with all my friends who were on that team with me, and even my coach who was such a big part of it, but I didn’t have enough time to talk about.
II. It might be a little too early to reminisce about the glory days of high school, but whenever we get together we always talk about how close we were and how we would do anything to get one more crack at it.
III. We all have certain experiences in our lifetime that will stick with us forever and put at the top of our list to revisit whenever the time machine is invented.
A. Taking a second to step back and soak in those experiences the first time around will help us enjoy them at the moment while it’s fresh.