Grace Keenan has a lot to say. Even by the simplest questions like, “Can you describe yourself in three words?” she talked on for about 3 minutes. This shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing though. She just has a lot to say.
So maybe it’s fitting that she’s on the speech team, a club at GM that is often paired with debate, but is also unknown to many.
Speech is a competition where the contestants recite an old speech, a part of a play, or even their own original speech. It is not like debate, even though often grouped with it. Debate has two sides: pro or con. Speech is more liberal – a contestant can do a piece on any subject.
“Speech, in its most basic form, is a form of speaking and a form of self-expression. There are many different events. The way I think about it is a little bit like track and cross country. People think they’re the same thing, but people who do cross country are like ‘no they’re not.’ I think of debate as cross country because it’s one event. And then there’s speech, which is track. You have shot put, discus, hurdles, and tons of others.”
The team itself is very small – only 4 people are on it. Grace is the only member who regularly competes and advances to higher competitions. Keenan’s cousin acts as a coach, or really a mentor, for the team.
“We need to get him paid. He helps out.”
Grace got her start in speech when she signed up for a camp, initially not even knowing what it was about.
“I got interested in speech because of debate. Then I went to a speech camp because I thought they were the same thing. I went there for 12 days. I got a new speech completely ready and they taught me how to do it and everything, and then I was hooked. It was kind of an accident, because I didn’t know what speech was when I went to that camp.”
Now, Keenan has competed in many tournaments, national and local. She’s traveled to as far as Sacramento, California, and as close as George Mason University, where she competed in the declamation event.
“[Declamation] is where you take another speech that someone else wrote and perform it. It’s a simpler event but it’s good for beginners.”
At the nationwide Patriots Tournament in December, Keenan competed in and won the declamation event. Nobody else on the speech at GM has ever gotten to any national tournament, let alone 2, like Keenan has. At the Sacramento national tournament, Grace, as a freshman, placed around the middle in an exclusive group of qualifiers from all across the country.
When asked why she chose speech over debate, Grace’s answer really shows why she is so passionate about this subject.
“A lot of people talk about merits in debate being you get to look at something in a different perspective. And that’s great, and I totally agree that that’s a valuable skill to have. That being said, I think in some ways it’s more valuable and more empowering to say your own peace. And that’s what you get to do in speech, and not in debate.”
In addition to her travels for speech, Keenan has vacationed all over the US, Europe, and Asia with her family.
“I’ve traveled in spurts. I spent a month travelling Asia – my parents like to have these big things where if we’re going to pay the airfare, then we go to some place for like a month. I spent a month traveling Asia when I was 11.”
Keenan has been to France, Spain, Germany, China, Cambodia, Thailand – you name it. Yet her favorite place? Here in the U.S.
“Marin County. It’s in the Bay Area. My family has lived there since the Gold Rush. In Marin County, Jasmine grows wild there. So it constantly smells of Jasmine and Eucalyptus leaves. It’s sunny all the time and 70 degrees.”
And her least favorite place?
“Sacramento. Because someone got shanked outside of a restaurant I was at.”
After I learned about Keenan’s love her speech and love for traveling, I wanted to know a little bit more about her personality. It was time for the lightning round.
On the best day of her life (guess what, it’s speech-related):
“I really enjoyed that moment I won that tournament and they announced my name on the stage and I had all my speech friends cheering for me.”
On her ideal day:
“I’d like to meet Matt Damon. And I’d like to meet Hillary Clinton. And we could have tea together. Maybe at different times. I’d have lunch with Hillary Clinton, and then Matt Damon and I would go out for dinner together under the stars.”
Three words to describe herself:
“Quirky… resilient… and… Lucille Ball.”
On what she would write a book on:
“Embarrassing and klutzy moments. Because I have a lot of those.”
On something people probably don’t know about her:
“I want to have a dog. I want to have a whippet, and I want to name it Devo, like the band from the 80s.” Devo sings the very popular song called “Whip it.”
Something else that popped up when I asked her what people don’t know about her was that she has POTS – Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.
“Well I’m in a wheelchair most of the time now. I’ve quit going to school, I’m now homeschooling with all online classes. And I’m really tired. I think I’m really out of it, but I think that’s a good thing because if I was fully aware of what was going on then I think I’d be too upset. And I’ve dealt with it better than I thought I would. It’s made me very thankful.”
Yet her illness doesn’t define her. Grace is determined to compete like normal at nationals in Louisville this year.
“I was kind of nervous that I wouldn’t be able to go, because I’ve been [cough] kind of [cough] sick. I competed at my last tournament that qualified me for nationals in a wheelchair, and I still won. So, if I have to go to Louisville in a wheelchair, that’s what I’ll do. And that’ll be pretty cool.”
For her future in speech though, Grace has bright ideas for her 11th grade year.
“I want to do an original oratory next year, on making invisible illnesses visible.”
The oratory (an original speech) would accompany dramatic interpretation, a reading of any portion of a play, short story, or poem.
Although there’s many obstacles in her way in the upcoming months, Grace has little doubt that her speech career, and her school career, will continue to flourish in the future.
