Last Saturday I took part in a speech contest at Guangzhou Children’s Palace, whose theme was “To Protect Our Earth”. After I looked for information in the library and on the net many times, I prepared a draft for the speech. But when my turn was coming, I felt extremely nervous. I tried to calm myself down as soon as possible, and to my joy, I got the third place at last. By participating in this contest, I came to the understanding that self-confidence can encourage us to do everything well and that only by using the language constantly can we improve our English.