Speech and then edit

This is pretty hard for me. I have a pretty big fear of public speaking, and I'm sure a lot of you can sympathize being up in front of people, many of them older and less submissive than I am, (which doesn't mean less confident, by the way, but it does mean less likely to be speaking to a large group of people, and therefore less experienced). When I heard about this title competition, I didn't want to do it. In fact, I still don't really want to be up here, doing it. But I realized, I have something important to say, and this is one of those rare chances (rare for me, anyway.) to say it - and not only that, I'm just the person for the job. I'm young, I'm female, I'm submissive, I'm even pretty gullible. There are a lot of people that fit that description entering into the lifestyle. They need us. They need people int he community to reach out to them and give them a place in the community. (A lot of groups actually don't allow women to attend until they are 21, for various reasons. But these young women who have just become adults need guidance and support even more than people who are just new to the lifestyle, because they're learning everything, not just the basics of BDSM, the lifestyle and the community. They need this, and they're going to get it somewhere, even if it's not from the right people.)
You see, I have always been submissive, even before I learned what bondage was. In my high school yearbook photo, I'm actually wearing a collar - I even made it myself.  I didn't even know about collaring, I just knew that I wanted everyone to know that I was owned, and I didn't know how else (any better way) to show it. My point is that we as a community need to keep an eye out for these young girls, maybe even before they join fetlife. (you know the wrong sort are already keeping an eye out for them). We need to let them know that there is a large group of people out there who think like they do - they're not freaks, and they're not alone. They need to know that the one dominant-ish person they've found isn't their only option, and they need someone to tell them, "It's OK that you want to do this, this is how you do it safely." I say all this, because that's what I wish some some pretty bad shit happened to me before I found the community, and maybe if someone had noticed , taken me aside, and talked honestly to me about it, that shit would never have happened. Thank you for your time. 




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Those of you who know me know that I don't have many soap boxes. I'm the fun-loving girl who, while she has a pretty good head on her shoulders, thinks that if you're going to talk about something you're passionate enough about to carry that soapbox with you, you're either going to be talking to people who already agree with you, or you're going to get in a lot of arguments. Now, you may not share this with me, but my brand of submission doesn't like getting into too many arguments. I have my beliefs, and I live by them, but I don't rape anyone's throat with them either, if you know what I mean. So after all that, I want you to know that the only reason I'm running for this title is because I have something to say, and since I hate public speaking, it must be pretty damn important.