Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Public Speaking... aka My Worst Nightmare
So if any of you have ever had the opportunity to converse with me (which hopefully pertains to all of you.... the only people actually reading this.... aka Kenn, Jenny, Lea and Dylan...) you definitely know I am anything but shy. Which is why it makes no sense that when I suddenly get in front of a crowd of my peers (or anybody actually.) I freeze up; throat tightens, absolutely cannot swallow, the stutter starts. I think this stems from an inner insecurity about looking like an idiot in front of people I have to deal with. And it's not just when giving a presentation or something. Every time I get called on in class, same affliction. I self-doubt and ultimately make a bigger idiot out of myself with the whole "uhhh uhh ummm well.....uhhhh" thing I usually do. You could have me up on stage in front of 50 people reciting what I had for lunch and all of a sudden I studder worse than a politician who was just caught with a prostitute and cocaine: " Well...ummm I...uhh... well you see.....NO IT WASN'T ME!!!" What? Picturing my audience has no effect on calming me whatsoever I have found out. The last time that happened was during the speech portion of Academic Decathlon and I nearly blinded myself picturing this old retired military guy and this long raven-haired hippie of an old woman in their skivvy's and wasted a a full 20 seconds I could've used to defend my point on blinking and making faces. If anybody (aka Dylan, Kenn, Lea and Jenny) have any helpful hints, please inform me because I really would rather use my credits on something I enjoy rather than take this ludicrous excuse for an actual course that they offer at the fine establishment at which I am currently enrolled.
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Public speaking isn't easy. I took two years of speech in high school and the typical college speech course. I've even done high school assemblies across san diego county including small classrooms and gymnasiums of 1500+ students. I still get butterflies beforehand.
My advice for you: you are the expert. You know it all and you're going to tell them all what you know. Your audience may not know the answer, so they'll look to you so be assertive and tell them like its doctrine. Even if you have a moment of confusion, correcting yourself will only cause you to trip over your words. Take a deep breath and always pace yourself. You may think you're going at moderate speed, but you're probably talking faster than you think to get it over with quick. Make eye contact with everyone that you can, as if each part of your speech is directed at that one individual and there is nobody else in the room.
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