Constraint

Prologue

"She's running out the door

She's running out

She runs runs runs"

~~~

"My name is Charlotte Anderson, but my nickname is Lottie. In fact, I prefer Lottie. I really hate my real name because I'm named after a spider in a cartoon movie that's like over a decade old, and it's also a movie that I strongly dislike. I don't like it because I watched it too many times. No, the first time I ever saw it I disliked it. I don't see the big deal about a pig teaming up with a singing spider against-I'm rambling again, aren't I?" I pressed the stop button on my lap top and let out a loud sigh.

I always tended to ramble.

I had the right start, but once my mind got off topic, say goodbye to the whole speech.

I was trying to make a speech for my online speech class-online speech, yeah I know-and all I have to do is coordinate a power point introducing myself to get a proper grade. I know this online speech class is basically a blow-off; it's not the same as making and preparing a speech in front of people, it's so different than doing it in front of a camera. But I knew how much gas it was going to cost having to drive all the way to the college, and I knew that since it was my senior year, I wasn't exactly going to have down time to go there twice a week for 2 hours and do a speech class. I figured it would save time and money by doing it online.

However, I'm also a procrastinator.

I always do my work at the last minute. If a teacher assigned an essay and said it was due in two weeks, I can guarantee you that I would be finishing it up, editing it and such the night before it was due. You can call me lazy, you can call me unmotivated, but I prefer to call it procrastinating.

I pressed play on the button and started my speech again.

"My name is Charlotte Anderson, but my nickname is Lottie. You can call me that if you want; I'm just saying that I have a nickname. Anyway, I'm 17 years-old, my birthday is on November the 20th, and..." I suddenly lost all train of thought and once again had to stop the recording. I clenched my teeth and pushed away from my desk, taking my hair out from its ponytail and letting it fan over my back.

One thing I learned is that I stink at doing speeches. I guess it would help if I wrote down the specific topics in front of me-hell I've heard from people that they write their entire speech and hang it behind the computer screen. They read the speech off the paper and to the viewer; it looks like they're actually just saying it. But since I'm so difficult, I prefer doing things the hard way.

Plus I thought it was easier to just talk, but apparently I was wrong.

I finally gave in and grabbed a piece of notebook paper and started writing things about myself. I hated having to do things like this, mostly because I didn't know what I wanted to write down. Sure it was easy to say how old I was or what color I liked-but what do I say after that?

Do I have to say that I'm panicking because I have no idea what I want to do after high school?

Could I say that my mum and I are not on good terms right now?

I stopped writing topics when I ran out of things to say. What do normal people say? Do I like to ride horses? No, I've never even ridden on a horse before. Do I like to read? Oh, yes, I actually do like reading, so I quickly jotted that down. I then added 3 books I thought of at the moment so I could prove that I do actually read.

I thought this presentation was going to be easy, but it's not.

Just keep it simple, I told myself as I tried to think of something else. You don't have to give everything away about yourself. Just list 5 things...