Hesitations

In class today we worked on eliminating the umms from our sentences as our professor stressed that there is no time for hesitation when we give a speech. This made me think: What can be gained in a hesitation? A hesitation can be a moment to think. Rebalancing your thought, making sure that your next move is your best move. A hesitation isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In basketball, you oftentimes use a hesitation to fool your defender in order to score. Stopping for a brief moment, providing yourself options, different directions to go in. I would encourage people to do the same in life. It is always good to review the options you have before making your next decision.

I’m walking down the sidewalk as I write this. Yellow leaves blanket the road and continue to fall like confetti greeting me. Orange leaves stick to the trees like the ember of a fire sticks to the wood. A peaceful feeling has control of today. The type of feeling that occurs when you feel you are moving in the right direction.

I am now in The Arb, a restaurant on campus. Soul music from the ’70s is playing over the speakers and a cool wind is hitting my skin. I feel like this is a hesitation. A pause in the day before I return to the action. Pauses can be beautiful.

Michael Jackson is now playing over the speakers. The song has a beat with a higher tempo than the last. The transition between the two songs was smooth even with the change in tempo. Kind of like the transition in basketball from a hesitation to scoring the basketball. Even though the movement is quick and explosive, it is still smooth. Transitions can be just as important as the hesitation.

Soon I will be transitioning to life after college. I was on FaceTime joking with my sister yesterday that I can’t cook so I will be starving upon graduation. We both know though that I will figure out how to cook one way or another. It will just take a slight hesitation, a break in the action. There’s always points in our life when we need a break in the action. While it is important to eliminate hesitation in speeches, they will always be necessary in life.