For one Greene County High School senior, qualifying for a prestigious event wasn’t on her radar.

Savannah Lansman performed her Prose entry at the Iowa High School Speech Association State Individual Contest, in which she wrote about an evil teacher who turns all of the students into apples. She explains that the students fight back and turn themselves back into humans, then turn her into an apple, which a janitor comes along later and eats it. However, Lansman tells Raccoon Valley Radio that she forgot the ending and made it up on the spot.

Lansman recalls that after the performance, she was dismayed but happy because she didn’t let on that she changed the ending, but she figured All-State was out of the question. She describes her initial reaction when she learned she qualified for the All-State Festival.

“For that specific one, (I was) completely shocked. That day I had walked out of the room and I was like, ‘Well, I’m done. This is done.’ But when I found out, me and my mom jumped up and down, there was a few tears. I was like completely just blown away.”

Lansman talks about what it means for her high school speech career to end it with a performance at the All-State Speech Festival.

“It’s a huge honor and I never saw myself going this far in speech. It was something I was able to do to just step out of my comfort zone and learn how to talk in front of people. So going out like this is just truly amazing and I’m very blessed and thankful for this opportunity.”   

Lansman will be traveling to the University of Northern Iowa this coming Monday to perform at the All-State Speech Festival.