Hard Work Paying Off

This week in ISM was a good one. In ISM this week, we had to make a speech about a place where we want to go, which was quite a vague prompt. The vagueness of the prompt had caused confusion on what I was going to say and how to make up for previous blunders in speaking in front of the class. The last two times I had spoken in ISM, I was quite unsure of myself and I had conveyed that I was uncomfortable with speaking in public and that I was not a good speaker. I pride myself in speaking well and in stressful situations, and the past two speeches were hits towards my ego and my self confidence.

When thinking about the speech I would give, I wanted to talk about something of importance to me, and something that I knew about so that when the stress would hit, I would be well prepared. I had prepared a text script and I had practiced the manner in which I would speak, but I did not memorize the script. I knew if I had memorized the script, I would've spoken in a very unauthentic manner, so what I had done was create a structure that I would follow and general points in case of the worst. When time came for me to give the speech, I was nervous. The speeches before me were excellent and had garnered high praise, and I was worried that I would be the one person to ruin the streak of excellent speeches.

When I had said the first words of my speech, my nervousness melted, and I began speaking from the heart. I remembered the structure and I had remembered the inflections that I had desperately wanted to implement in the speech. When I had finished, I had thought that I had done well, but I was shocked at the positive reception I had gotten and the relatively little criticisms I had received. It would be quite easy to let this get to my head and to think that I am naturally gifted at speaking, but that would be short sighted. What had led me to be successful was the recitation of the structure of the speech and the fact that I knew what I wanted to talk about. While this was quite the success, I still have quite a ways to improve and to become an even better speaker.