Personal Narrative: Welcome To Public Speaking
I walked in on the first day of freshman year, not knowing what the school year held in store for me. I had no idea what classes and teachers were assigned to me. We went to our first period, which for me was Geometry. The bell rang and came second period. My schedule said "Public Speaking," but I did not have a clue on what that was. I began to get tense and anxious because surprises are not my thing. The teacher walked in and said, "Hi, welcome to Public Speaking. You'll be learning how to speak in front of a large group of people. We will be reading speeches and also debating against one another." My heart dropped. I started to get even more edgy. All my life before freshman year, I struggled tremendously to speak in front of a class. My
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It was my point of view on the death penalty, so naturally it was a touchy subject to begin with. The nature of the topic made it more difficult for me to execute (no pun intended) my speech. I walked up to the podium, fixed my papers, and started reading. The class was silent. It felt like I was reading for hours, but it took me only 10 minutes. At the end of the speech, my teacher asked for opinions and critiques. One boy said he agreed with my point of view. Another girl said, "I admired how passionate you were about what you were saying." That comment built up my non-existent confidence. It made me come to terms with my problem. I then made it my personal mission to find a solution to this problem, or maybe I was still stuck in my Geometry class from first period, who knows. We did more and more presentations, sometimes alone and sometimes with a partner. My public speaking teacher was also a Drama teacher, so she wanted to incorporate a little part of her Drama class. The assignment was to read a monologue and act it out. Now, public speaking was hard enough for me, but acting in front of people was on a whole different level. I managed to complete the monologue without having a panic attack, so that was a good sign. By the time the school year was over, I had gotten more confident in my presentations. I could talk in front of a class without resembling a tomato! Mission
It was my point of view on the death penalty, so naturally it was a touchy subject to begin with. The nature of the topic made it more difficult for me to execute (no pun intended) my speech. I walked up to the podium, fixed my papers, and started reading. The class was silent. It felt like I was reading for hours, but it took me only 10 minutes. At the end of the speech, my teacher asked for opinions and critiques. One boy said he agreed with my point of view. Another girl said, "I admired how passionate you were about what you were saying." That comment built up my non-existent confidence. It made me come to terms with my problem. I then made it my personal mission to find a solution to this problem, or maybe I was still stuck in my Geometry class from first period, who knows. We did more and more presentations, sometimes alone and sometimes with a partner. My public speaking teacher was also a Drama teacher, so she wanted to incorporate a little part of her Drama class. The assignment was to read a monologue and act it out. Now, public speaking was hard enough for me, but acting in front of people was on a whole different level. I managed to complete the monologue without having a panic attack, so that was a good sign. By the time the school year was over, I had gotten more confident in my presentations. I could talk in front of a class without resembling a tomato! Mission