Fired Up! Ready To Go! Storytelling in Historic Present Tense

Fired Up! Ready To Go! Storytelling in Historic Present Tense Have you ever noticed that sometimes, people tell stories using  the present tense, even though the events happened in the past?  According to  the New Oxford American Dictionary, when present tense is used instead of the past to tell a vivid narrative, its called historic present tense.  You might also  see this used in magazine or news articles and informal speech.Today, well look at how historic present tense is used in a story told by Obama.  You might notice that  using this tense to tell a story strengthens the story, and makes it feel like youre there with the storyteller.  I think this is what Obama  wanted when he told the following story.First, read Obamas speech and change the bold verbs from  the past tenses to present tenses to use historic present tense.  Then, check your answers as you watch the inspirational video.When I ran for the presidency 08, I flew  to South Carolina, alarm went  off, and I felt  terrible.  I was  exhaustedthink  I was  coming down with a cold.  I opened  up the curtains.  It was pouring  down rain outside-pouring down rain!  Horrible day.  Id  got the newspaper outside my door and there was  a bad story about me in the New York Times.  I got  dressed, shaved, walked out.  My umbrella blew  open.  That ever happen to you?  And I  got  soaked!  Soaked!  I was  just soaked.  I got  in the car.  I  said, Alright, how long is it gonna take to Greenwood?  An hour and a half!  So we were driving, and we were driving, and we  were driving.  Didnt  seem like we  were going  anywhere.  Sheets of rain were  pouring down.  Finally, I got  out, and I was sloshing  around in the rain, and my socks were  wet.  And I walked  in, and there were  like 15-20 people there.  And, I will tell you, they didnt look any happier to see me than I did to see them.  And so I went  around the room and I said, How do you do?  What do you do?  But they were  not reallyfeeling it right then.  Suddenly, I  heard  this voice fr om the back just shout, Fired up!  And everybody in the room said, Fired up!  And then I heard  the voice say, Ready to go!  And everybody in the room said, Ready to go! And I didnt  know what was  going on.  I thought  these people were  crazy.  Maybe I shouldnt have come here.  And then I looked  in the back of the room.  And there was this middle-aged woman.  Shed got a big church hat.  And shed got, I think, a gold tooth.  Turns  out, she holds a position in the local NAACP office, and also-Im not kidding you-is a private detective.  This is a true story.  Shes like a private eye.  Although, its hard to think that you wouldnt see her coming.  Shes very colorful.  And she is known, wherever she goes, by saying this chant, Fired up!  Ready to go! And every meeting she goes to, she does this thing.  But the interesting thing is, after a while, I was starting to get kind of fired up.  I was starting to feel like I was ready to go.  And all those negative thoughts, all those bad memories started kind of drifting away.We would love to hear your stories!  Use historic present tense to tell us something that happened to you recently in the comments section below.  Or, better yet, schedule a class with LOI to tell your story to a native speaker!