Xiyuan Wei (Jonathan), Grade 10
UWC China
The whole story all began with a regular day of volunteering at the World Congress of Philosophy. I was one of the few volunteers who had received double jobs during the conference: not only having to serve as a volunteer to help scholars check-in but also I needed to supervise a big meeting to ensure that everything went smoothly. I didn’t have a tough time helping the volunteers check-in, although at times it was hard to manage. But in comparison to the accident that occurred during my second job, the first job was just a piece of cake.
Supervising the meeting only consisted of a few simple but important steps: Making sure that all key scholars and the MC were present, and ensuring all the equipment such as the Microphone and Projector was functioning properly.
However, on August 17th, 2018, a regular day with no ominous signs, I entered the meeting room on time and checked all the equipment. By then, no one had shown up for the conference - neither the speakers nor the audience. After checking the time, I expected the room to be full in half an hour.
I was just hanging around, and a book caught my eye. After skimming through it, I realized that it contained information concerning all the speakers; this book was actually for the host to introduce the speakers at the beginning of the conference.
Gradually, people slowly got into the conference room, and each of them looked quite complacent as if they were the most intelligent person on Earth. However, all those people that arrived were the audience members - the speakers and the host hadn’t arrived yet! There were only 10 minutes left. I started to wonder if this was a prank being played on me.
Just as it seemed inevitable that things would go out of control, the first speaker came. While I was helping him prepare him for the conference i.e. downloading the PowerPoint that he wanted to use and telling him how to use the facilities, the second speaker came. Soon after, and to my relief, the third speaker entered as well.
Three minutes to go, and everything seemed settled. I went back to my usual seat at the back, comfortably relaxed, preparing to enjoy this conference. Accidentally, and for no reason, I caught sight of the rostrum, where the host was supposed to be. Now my stomach was churning: I felt like throwing up. I realized that something went deeply wrong.
With only three minutes to go, I was totally shocked at what was happening, and my hands were sweating crazily.
I stood up from my seat, feeling pretty dizzy, and decided to take some action. I suddenly remembered that I had found that book about all the speakers earlier. I picked it up from the desk and quickly skimmed through it and found the three speakers of this meeting. After supervising several meetings, I was quite familiar with the hosting process. Under tremendous pressure, I gripped the book and walked onstage.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I am Jonathan, your temporary host for this conference. Our host for this conference could not show up for some reasons. Now let’s welcome our three speakers. The first one is… ” I opened the book and began to read.
Thankfully, the whole conference went pretty smoothly. After the meeting, there were even a few audience members that praised me for my improvisation. Two of the speakers even asked me for a group photo - it was supposed to be the other way round. I would not say that I learned a lot from this incident, just like all those typical fables, but what I definitely remembered from this case was that one must not be flustered by accidents. You know life is full of accidents.
Supervising the meeting only consisted of a few simple but important steps: Making sure that all key scholars and the MC were present, and ensuring all the equipment such as the Microphone and Projector was functioning properly.
However, on August 17th, 2018, a regular day with no ominous signs, I entered the meeting room on time and checked all the equipment. By then, no one had shown up for the conference - neither the speakers nor the audience. After checking the time, I expected the room to be full in half an hour.
I was just hanging around, and a book caught my eye. After skimming through it, I realized that it contained information concerning all the speakers; this book was actually for the host to introduce the speakers at the beginning of the conference.
Gradually, people slowly got into the conference room, and each of them looked quite complacent as if they were the most intelligent person on Earth. However, all those people that arrived were the audience members - the speakers and the host hadn’t arrived yet! There were only 10 minutes left. I started to wonder if this was a prank being played on me.
Just as it seemed inevitable that things would go out of control, the first speaker came. While I was helping him prepare him for the conference i.e. downloading the PowerPoint that he wanted to use and telling him how to use the facilities, the second speaker came. Soon after, and to my relief, the third speaker entered as well.
Three minutes to go, and everything seemed settled. I went back to my usual seat at the back, comfortably relaxed, preparing to enjoy this conference. Accidentally, and for no reason, I caught sight of the rostrum, where the host was supposed to be. Now my stomach was churning: I felt like throwing up. I realized that something went deeply wrong.
With only three minutes to go, I was totally shocked at what was happening, and my hands were sweating crazily.
I stood up from my seat, feeling pretty dizzy, and decided to take some action. I suddenly remembered that I had found that book about all the speakers earlier. I picked it up from the desk and quickly skimmed through it and found the three speakers of this meeting. After supervising several meetings, I was quite familiar with the hosting process. Under tremendous pressure, I gripped the book and walked onstage.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I am Jonathan, your temporary host for this conference. Our host for this conference could not show up for some reasons. Now let’s welcome our three speakers. The first one is… ” I opened the book and began to read.
Thankfully, the whole conference went pretty smoothly. After the meeting, there were even a few audience members that praised me for my improvisation. Two of the speakers even asked me for a group photo - it was supposed to be the other way round. I would not say that I learned a lot from this incident, just like all those typical fables, but what I definitely remembered from this case was that one must not be flustered by accidents. You know life is full of accidents.
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