overcome my fear of public speaking

i had to give a presentation last friday with two other people on our second design project. it was in front of probably a hundred people or so. i freaked out before hand, but i didn’t freak out for the actual presentation. it was a maximum of four minutes, so i only had to speak for a minute or so. surprisingly, i was kind of calm. i’m proud of myself. i’m not completely over my fear yet, though.

for one of my engineering classes, we have to do a presentation for our design project at the end of this semester… in front of all of the engineering freshman, which is well over a hundred people!! i’m nervous already. the presentation is only four minutes long. i’m hoping that the short time will work in my advantage. i figure it will give me enough time to see what it is like to talk in front of so many people, but not so long that i will freak out because of it. there are three of us in our group, so it won’t be me talking the entire time. i’m hoping this experience will help me acheive my goal of overcoming my fear of public speaking.

oh, and when my teacher first mentioned that we’d be presenting in front of them, most of the class turned and looked at me, as the girl sitting next to me said something like, “oh dear nicole….” hopefully after this presentation, this won’t happen anymore.

i had to do a presentation in my engineering class in college today. i didn’t do as bad as i thought i was going to do! my lips didn’t quiver like they usually do, i could form complete sentences, i’d say it’s an improvement!

i am terrified of speaking in front of other people. i know that in high school no one ever really pays attention to the presentation that the kid is giving, but i still get so nervous over them. my heart rate rises, my breathing becomes completely irregular, i start to sweat a little, my legs, arms and hands shake, i either studder or talk really fast, and my chin/bottom lip quivers so much that i can hardly talk anymore. it’s the worst experiance ever for me, and i’m glad that so far this year i have yet to have to give a presentation.

there was a banquet a little over a month ago in which all the seniors of the group were to give speeches. just the idea of giving a speech in front of an enormous crowd of people made me nervous. i would talk about it to my friends, and just talking about how nervous i get made me nervous. i hate this feeling. i wish i could be comfortable talking in front of people.