After watching my knees shake as I spoke in front of 100+ interviewers on a calling floor some 9 years ago, my husband suggested strongly that I take speech 101 before leaving the community college. He said it would help me overcome my public speaking stress.
So.. I took the class and gave my first speech today. I was very happy to hear the results. The instructor said, “Wow.. you read, write, study English or something. You were *very* concious of structure and your coverage of the material was very clean. I’d just like you to slow down a little bit.”
After class, I was told that all this writing and outlining and crap for speech 101 was probably beyond me, but that she really felt that she could help me slow down and become more relaxed in front of a large group.
It felt good to know that I just had a single, small flaw. I’m not too quiet, I’m not fidgety, I make good eye contact.. I just.. well I imagine that I spoke as fast as I type, and for those of you who have had the unnerving experience of watching me type at full speed–I call it stream of conciousness typing– you know what I mean.
It throws most people. Our next speech topic is due Friday. It has to be an informative speech. I was considering writing a six minute dissertation on how to identify a magical girl.. we’ll see how that flies with my instructor.
That’s the good news, the bad news is that I still have a ton of math homework, and I just finished eating lunch and taking my sanity break. I’ve got an hour to get through at least half of the math homework before my son comes home.
Ja!