I had never been afraid to speak in public until the end of last year, when I bombed my english final.
I recall my hands trembling and feeling as though I had a huge knot quickly expanding throughout my throat. The closer I got to the room, the tighter the knot was pulled because I knew that I had one chance, and once chance only.
I couldn't mess up.
I recall my hands trembling and feeling as though I had a huge knot quickly expanding throughout my throat. The closer I got to the room, the tighter the knot was pulled because I knew that I had one chance, and once chance only.
I couldn't mess up.
Yet I did.
My mind went completely blank halfway through my presentation and I repeated the same frase six times. It got to such a point were I didn't know what to say that I didn't say nothing at all; I simply stared ahead and let the tears fill my eyes.
I was so embarrassed because I had spent days practicing my presentation, but I realized that it was because I had memorized what to say that I messed up.
I didn't truly "know" my pitch, I had just memorized it, which is why I couldn't improvise my way through a mistake.
Today was the first time since that I've had to present something that was of such importance to me. It was a TED talk about me--I had to share my story.
So I won't lie. Even though today was just a practice run, that same feeling of nervousness rushed throughout my body because I had never shared my story with anyone, and nonetheless, I had never shared something that was so personal.
Don't get me wrong, I made several mistakes along the way. But unlike my English final, I didn't memorize what to say so I was able to improvize my way through my mistakes.
I knew my story. And I knew that no one in the audience knew me better than I knew myself. So who better than myself to tell my story?
My mind went completely blank halfway through my presentation and I repeated the same frase six times. It got to such a point were I didn't know what to say that I didn't say nothing at all; I simply stared ahead and let the tears fill my eyes.
I was so embarrassed because I had spent days practicing my presentation, but I realized that it was because I had memorized what to say that I messed up.
I didn't truly "know" my pitch, I had just memorized it, which is why I couldn't improvise my way through a mistake.
Today was the first time since that I've had to present something that was of such importance to me. It was a TED talk about me--I had to share my story.
So I won't lie. Even though today was just a practice run, that same feeling of nervousness rushed throughout my body because I had never shared my story with anyone, and nonetheless, I had never shared something that was so personal.
Don't get me wrong, I made several mistakes along the way. But unlike my English final, I didn't memorize what to say so I was able to improvize my way through my mistakes.
I knew my story. And I knew that no one in the audience knew me better than I knew myself. So who better than myself to tell my story?