The Butterflies In Your Stomach

The butterflies in your stomach, the clamminess in your palms, the anxious feeling looming overhead—today is speech day. For some reason simply speaking directly to a handful of our peers, the students who grew up in the dorms with us, the classmates who share our stresses and worries, will still manage to put the fear of God in us all. I believe I can speak for everyone when I say that public speaking is never first on our weekend to-do list. The funniest thing about it is that we give “speeches” everyday. When we convince our friends to eat at Firestone instead of Woodstock’s, when we persuade our Professors to curve the final exam; when we speak at all, we are conducting ourselves in a manner that influences others with a defining representation of ourselves, our thoughts and interests. These thoughts and interests collected by our listeners are used to further generate a public opinion that either labels us as credible or incredible. It is said that when you meet a person, he makes a judgment about you in the first four seconds and his judgment is finalized within 30 seconds, this is why public speaking is an important tool that we, as college students, must continuously polish and practice. I used both my previous knowledge from a high school speech class and the new knowledge shared by Professor Brock in classroom setting to create a telling and effective speech worth both the time of my Professor as well as my peers. Just a few short years ago I went to Cathedral Catholic High School in San Diego where we were required to take the infamous and dreaded “Speech” class. Although I didn’t yet appreciate it at the time, after taking Coms 101 here at Cal Poly, I realize how much I benefited from that class back in high school. In that speech class freshman year I delivered impromptu, informative and persuasive speeches, as well as a research speech and eulogy. These speeches were the perfect opportunities to overcome my initial fears of