A Reflection on The Bailey’s

Every year Juniata College hosts The Bailey Oratorical, where students compete in a speech competition where the topic created by several Professors in the communications department. The speech is 6–8 minutes long and must be along the lines of the topic of that year. This year’s topic was who would you choose to be TIME’s person/group/idea of the year that has impacted the world, for better or worse. I try to watch the Bailey’s every year when it is available (in previous years there was some trouble due to COVID) and luckly this year I was on campus to experience it.

The first speech was about Congress Woman Liz Cheney and her resilience and attitude. The student giving the speech spoke on how we should be more like her and look up to people like Cheney. I was honestly surprised to hear the first topic because I expected it to be about COVID or war.

The second speech was given by a student teacher who spoke about a girl in their class, Millie. I absolutely LOVED this speech. It touched upon how we have forgotten how we were as children, and how we should work to gain some of those traits back. Some of these traits were kindness, compassion, empathy/sympathy, problem solving, and standing up for yourself and others. I thought the speech was very relatable and yes, I do strive to be like Millie.

Another speech, and what I thought was the most intriguing one, was about therapists. Now here’s a hot topic of 2020/2021 that often gets overlooked! The speech was informative, but also comical which kept my attention steady throughout it.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with most of the speech topics. I was expecting COVID to be mentioned a lot and surprisingly, it wasn't. I do believe that the first-place winner well deserved the award and recognition as their speech was relatable and personal. Unfortunately, I graduate this May, so I will not be able to physically attend another Bailey’s. But I do look forward to next years to watch online.