Personal Narrative: The Chatty Cathy Doll

In 1959, The Chatty Cathy Doll was brought into the world. Adored by many little girls throughout generations, The Chatty Cathy Doll, manufactured by Mattel, had obliterated the speaking doll competition. In fact, even after the dolls were no longer being manufactured, people still coined the phrase “Chatty Cathy”. Much like this doll, I believe my interests, talents, and even identity have become prominent through speech. I first recognized my interest in speaking during the sixth grade after I had gotten suckered into a theater class. At first was beyond terrified to even speak in front of an audience, or anyone that wasn’t my best friend for that matter. After an incident where I not only botched a monologue about a Peter Pan play gone wrong, but I stood in front of my theater class completely petrified and overcome by panic and nerves. Humiliation doesn’t

By the time I had started my freshmen year, I had already acclimated to my new school in East Texas that did not have a theater program. Admittedly, the transition without a theater class proved to be especially difficult for me, but that year I was introduced to my first “official” speech course. It was in that class that I realized while I may have been shy with one-on-one conversations, speaking in front of a group of thirty people was a breeze. Throughout my high school career, especially in during my junior year, how I spoke became more of an asset to me that I could have ever imagined. One especially challenging course for a majority of my class was dual-credit Speech. Our professor was especially critical of every detail in what made our presentations and our speeches acceptable. While I am exceptionally studious, I found that the supposedly “difficult” speeches felt more like a hobby than the strenuous test grades that they were. Fortunately, because of this, I made perfect scores on all my