"Patients, Please."

Speeches and Mimosas

There was a light knock at the door, getting up from the corner of the bed I was sitting on I answer the door to find Mark standing in front of me. "Did you not get much sleep either?" I ask as I turn and grab my purse.

He shakes his head, "I tossed and turned all night."

I make sure my doors shut before we leave, "I tossed and turned then I took a second bath at like 2 this morning. I have drank all of the coffee that's in my room. I even left this morning and got milk for one my coffee's trying to make it better." I realize we had walked to the end of the hallway and are standing in front of the elevator. "Sorry, probably more than you wanted to know."

"You're fine," he says with a smile. "I can also tell that you've been doing your makeup."

I put my hands to my cheeks, "Is it bad looking? The lighting in the room is awful."

The doors to the elevator ding open, "It looks lovely." The elevator is packed and we both wave it on. Mark and I decide maybe we should go down the stairs. He reaches around me and opens the door, I sigh and walk out into the hallway. Mark leads us to the large hall where there's plenty of people looking very professional. Then there's Mark and I, wearing the same thing we saw each other in last night.

There has to be a smaller place for the rest of the people that are just staying at the hotel." We walk around the hotel looking for a small place to sit, "Well, I guess we are sitting in the large conference room looking like lost travelers."

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Since we got back from breakfast, I have been getting ready. I touched up my makeup and then have been styling my hair. Looking over at the time, the first speech starts at 1 and its currently noon. I try and quickly change into my dress but I have a hard time zipping the back of it. I take a little bit to get all the other things I need together. I have the speech sitting next to my purse on the bed. There was a light knock at the door and I run over and answer, "I need zipped," is the first thing I say as I opened the door.

He laughs and I turn around, "This dress looks amazing on you."

Turning around I look at what he's wearing as well, a white button down shirt and slim black tie. Matching black dress pants and black shiny shoes, "You look amazing yourself."

"If you look this good for the speech I can't wait to see how you're going to look for tonight's gala." He smiles, "Are you ready?" He looks at his watch. "We need to get downstairs so we can get seated."

I shake my head and grab the speech, "I think I'm ready."

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It didn't take long for us to get to the very packed conference room, there were people leading us to our seats and Mark and I were one of the front tables, I place the speech down on the plate that was in front of me and I look around the room. There's so many people and I have to stand in front of them and recite a speech that I haven't read yet. I sigh, "Are you alright?" Mark asks leaning in.

"There's a ton of people," I say quietly. "But I'm fine."

There was a waiter walking around asking what we would like to drink, the lady across from me asks for a mimosa and that honestly sounds the best. I ask for one as well, the guy nods and then asks Mark. The woman sitting next to Mark starts talking to him, she's much older, I hear her ask if he's giving a speech. A gentleman starts talking into the mic, he introduces what the conference is about, apparently it's about women in powerful positions and how we can improve workplaces to make other women feel empowered. I look down at the speech in front of me. Mark passes me the flyer for the event where my name is first on the list. I stare at him concerned, then hold the speech in my hands.

"Even though Lisa could not join us this year. Her student assistant and friend joins us today. Please welcome to the stage, (Y/F/N)."

Nervously, I walk up to the stage and shake the man's hand that introduced me. I exhale before standing at the podium, the room is huge and everybody is staring at me. "Hello, like the gentleman said I'm filling in for Lisa. She's a lovely woman and in the time I've had with her she's helped me become a better person." I start messing with the paper in front of me. I take a deep breath and start reading.

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Walking back off the stage, people were clapping and as I hit the bottom step Mark was standing waiting for me. He pushed my seat in for me as I sat down, there's food on the plate that I left empty before. The woman sitting next to me leans over and puts her hand on my leg, "That was a wonderful speech, you did an amazing job." I nod.

Mark leans over as well, "You did a great job."

I sigh, "Open your hand."

He stares at me confused but opens his hand, I place mine above him and my hand uncontrollably shakes above it. He looks over and smiles, "That nervous huh?" I smile and nod. I take my hand back, but before I do I grab the mimosa waiting for me.

Even though there was another woman talking behind us, I sit rereading the speech I just gave. Even though I only knew her for a month or honestly not even that long, I've learned so much from these pieces of paper alone. She's been working at the school since she was in school, her and her husband married when she became a professor and she became the youngest professor to start teaching at our school. In the time she built an amazing career she raised 2 children. Her first son is currently in the military, I know that from conversations that we've had. But her second child, a daughter, died of cancer when she was only 5. She realized two years after she lost her daughter that she was not putting her heart in her work like she knew she needed too. 3 years after that she became the head of the department, where I had met her, where most of us had met her. At 35 she was asked to become part of the board for the school but declined because of conflicts she had with the Dean at the time. With his unfortunate passing, two years later, she stepped up but she also kept her position as English Department head.

At 40, only 5 years later, she was asked if she wanted to take over position for the retiring Dean. She would have become the first women Dean of our school but the day she was going to turn in her acceptance, her husband died in a car crash coming home from work to celebrate with her because the same day he got a promotion at work. That day she realized that she needed to enjoy what she was doing, enjoy the people around her and enjoy the job she was doing.

Clapping took me out of re-reading, Mark looked over at me as I realized I had been ignoring everything. I start clapping for the woman that was walking off the stage, "Are you okay?" he says leaning over. I nod my head. I couldn't be more proud of the woman I got to represent today.