PRS Personal Experience; the time I got lost

PRESENTATION
Personal experience: The time when I got lost
By Bianca Turalija, Hansung University, March 2006

Questions to help you remember your experience.

What type of experience was it? It was a scary experience.
Where were you? I was at a farmers’ fair in a small town.
When were you there? I was there when I was 4 years old.
Who was with you? I was there with my father.
What were you doing? We were just browsing and having fun.
Why were you there? To buy some fresh vegetables and home-made products.
How were you feeling? I was feeling scared.
Why did you feel that way? I felt that way because I was very small and I was afraid of strangers. I though I had been lost to my family forever.
What was your goal? I was thirsty. I jut wanted to have a drink of water.
How did you react? I was shouting my father’s name.
How did the story end? A kind woman calmed me down, asked for my name and my father’s name. She paged them through loudspeakers and he came to me running.
Why will you never forget the experience? It was a very scary and sad experience.

The answers to your questions are like brainstorming. They help you remember the experience. Based on these memories you will create a speech that is well organized into:
Introduction, Body, and Conclusion.

The following is the basic structure of any presentation:

START: Introduction

Welcome the audience
Grab audience’s attention (hooks) **
Introduce the subject


MIDDLE: The speech

END: Conclusion

Summarize the highlights
Thank the Audience

The time I got lost
(GREETING THE AUDIENCE): Hello, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am glad that you are here to listen to my presentation about the time I got lost. (HOOK):Do you remember any scary experience when you were a child? Perhaps, you were beaten by a dog? Or stung by a bee? Or you were beaten because you stole some money from your grandmother’s wallet? I am sure all of us have such an experience. (INTRODUCTION): I will tell you one of my most memorable childhood experiences, the time when I got lost.

MIDDLE: (well-organized and divided into sections that deal with time, place, event, your feeling).
Many, many years ago, when I was only 4 years old (time), my father took me to a farmers’ fair in a small town in the country not far away from my home town.(DETAILS: It was a beautiful summer day; the sun was shining; the flowers blossomed, the birds were chirping. The market was crowded with people and animals. You could buy anything there, from delicious juicy fruit to home-made pies, cookies, jams, pickles. There were also some used clothes and shoes, toys, furniture, everything. I was wearing my favourite red dress with white polka dots. My mother had put my hair in one cute curly pony tail and put a red hat on my head to protect me against the sun. (WHY THERE): My father and I were sent there on a Saturday to buy some of those goodies. She wanted to have an empty house to do the cleaning.

(WHAT AND HOW IT HAPPENED): I was very happy because my father bought me everything I wanted. At one point, I spotted a long line of people in front of an ice-cream truck. I pulled my father’s hand and pointed at it. He knew what I wanted, so he smiled and we joined the line. We waited for a long time. He saw a friend of his and waved him over. Soon they were talking not paying attention to me who clang to my father’s shirt.
I got really thirsty. About a 100 meters away, I spotted through the great crowd of human legs ( I was very short!) a group of children playing with a sprinkler. I was so thirsty, I wanted to drink some water so desperately that I just let go off my father’s shirt and started running over to the children. Unfortunately, I was swept away by the crowds and I could see neither the lawn with the sprinkler nor the ice-cream truck and my father. I looked around, ran here and there, still not panicking. I thought my father was playing a game of hide-and-seek with me.

(HOW IT ENDED) After a while, I noticed people staring at me worriedly, and that’s what scared me. “Dad,” I cried, first feebly and than more and more loudly. “Dad, dad, where are you?” Now, people were gathering around me, asking: “Whose child is this? Where are the parents?” I was crying now, scared and desperate. My parents had taught me not to talk to strangers, so I wouldn’t answer what my name was, nor the names of my parents, although I knew them.
Finally, an elderly lady who looked a lot like my grandmother approached me and spoke to me gently. I decided that I could trust her, so I told her who I was. Someone got a loudspeaker and yelled my father’s name. Five minutes later he appeared, sweaty and dusty, his hair a mess, out of breath. He was running all over the place asking about a little girl in a red dress with white polka dots. When he saw me, lifted me high up to his cheeks, buried his head in my hair and he started crying. “Dad, you got lost”, I told him, which made him laugh.


(CONCLUSION). I will never forget this experience because this was the first time I ever got lost and this was also the first time I remember experiencing fear and sadness and being overjoyed to be back in my father’s arms. Later, whenever we went to any crowded public places, I would be holding onto my parents’ hands or clothe till my knuckles turned white. Even today, when I am in big crowds, I feel a bit disoriented and scared. I almost turn back to that scared little girl looking for her father. I also became very careful: I never got lost in crowds again.