You know that moment before you go on stage, in front of a crowd of strangers, and your stomach churns your insides, gnawing at you and making you feel like you have heart burn? Have you ever wondered why? Is it because you think your going to trip in your heels? That you’ll be speechless and people will laugh?
I had to give a speech tonight. It was my graduation, and well I didn’t HAVE to give it, but I wanted to. Even though the very thought gave me mini panic attacks and nausea. I’m actually not THAT shy of crowds, especially a crowd of strangers, I mean what are they going to do? Laugh? Laugh all they want I’ll never see them again. But my parents make me nervous. It’s probably my inherent need to please them that makes me want to be good, and I’m not good hence the panic. But well I wanted to give the speech because it was my graduation, I wanted the experience and the adrenaline. I’ve been cooped up at home for ages, which might explain why people now make me nervous. Even so I gave the speech. *rolls eyes* I only realized afterwards how utterly arrogant it was but alas nothing can be done now except to improve my future speeches. Anyway it went OK. I faltered a bit on the second paragraph but I got back into the flow a little towards the middle.
My best friend Shafia Elahi has a brother Abdul Rehman who has this awesome motto ‘If your afraid of it, do it’. Beautiful right. I don’t know if it’s original but whatever the case it’s a pretty cool motto. It would make life fun right? Full of a kind of thrill. Keeping morals in check that is. You could accomplish so much if every time you got scared, instead of hitting the deck you embraced the fear head on. Easier said than done, but it’s worth a shot. Seriously though, we give other people too much credit, everyone gets nervous,its not the end of the world. Anyone can look confident but be weak inside, and its OK. Give people a break, as well as yourselves. We are not perfect, we are humans. Chill and next time your scared, hit the adrenaline.
Me,my weird thoughts and I 
You give good advice here. As a student I attended a lot of lectures and plays and when it came time for me to ‘perform’ I remembered what it felt like to sit in an audience and observe the nervousness of a speaker. It didn’t feel good and sometimes instead of hearing what they were saying all one’s concentration was on willing them to keep going. As a result I was determined to put my audience at ease by knowing my subject and talking with relaxed enthusiasm as if I was telling a good friend about a favourite topic. I soon lost my nervousness and could enjoy the experience and the praise that followed!
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Cool! 😀 so ur a teacher? I do the same thing when I see someone speaking publicly, I nod and encourage them. I know how it feels.
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Not a teacher but I used to do some lecturing on the subject of Nutrition. As an artist I like my work to do the talking but sometimes talking about something opens up new possibilities of thought. You sound like a great person to have in an audience!
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Thank you! And I agree. I love debating with my friends. There r so many perspectives. 😀
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life can be interesting when you are faced with tough situations
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