My Son, CHAMPION!!!

Okay, time for a proud father to brag about his son.  My son entered his schools English recitation contest last month.  I practiced with him several times and he was ready.  The day before the school contest a teacher tells him that the presenters are not supposed to use gestures, or big body movement.  He got home early evening  which didn't give him a lot of time to re-tool his presentation.   But he did it and won the school competition.  A few days later my wife called the teacher to ask about gestures and his teacher said that they were a little confused as to why my son didn't do a lot of gestures.  I hit the roof.  I was like, "WHAT???  Because he was told not to!!!"  His teacher went on to say that the scoring gap between my son and the second place person was very slim.

Now that my son was the winner of the school competition, he earned the right to represent the school at the Prefectural competition.

This last Sunday was the Prefectural competition.  Problem was that from Wednesday before my son caught a cold and even wasn't able to go to school on Friday.  Instead, on Friday, my wife took him to the hospital and got checked out.  The doc was surprised at how red my son's throat was.  He prescribed meds and rest.  When Sunday rolled around, my son was still not 100%.  Maybe 70% of his top physical condition.  There were 45 contestant in all.  My son was number 38.  As I sat and listened to the other students, I knew my son would win.  There was no question in my mind.  There were a few good students, but no one held a candle to what my son was able to do.  The students were judged on the following criteria:  
1. Memorization  2. Expression 3. Intonation 4. Facial expression 5. Body Language/Gestures 6. interpretation  7. Confidence
There were a few students that did a few of the critera well, but only my son had everything all working for him. He slammed it home! I am very proud of him and the effort and work he put in. He deserves the victory.