My first public speaking class Speaking with nerves of steel - Essay Example

This article begins with the description of author’s feelings about his first public speaking class. Ever since researcher had commenced his major he had looked to do anything to postpone taking this public speaking class. After years of trying to avoid the issue, researcher did not have a choice. Taking credits for a public speaking class was necessary to graduate, and as it was his last semester, researcher had to take the class in order to receive his diploma. Over the years researcher had procrastinated to the point where his fear of this public speaking class consumed every part of me.

There were times when researcher would lay awake at night thinking about how terrible researcher would find it. On occasion researcher even worked up a sweat or showed signs of a fever. All of his friends had already taken public speaking class in the first year of college, but researcher could not overcome his fears back then. One downside to this was that researcher would not know anyone in the class, giving me even more reason to be fearful. Many of his friends tried to calm his fears by telling me that there is not too much public speaking involved anyway, or at least when they took the class three years ago there wasn’t.

Even worse was the fact that most other people from his year level knew the struggles that researcher had with public speaking, and this further dented his confidence. Before researcher began taking the class, he tried to keep a positive mind by only visualizing me delivering fantastic public speeches. Still, putting this into practice was another matter entirely. Despite my reservations, it was full steam ahead as far as I was concerned because I wanted to get my hands on that diploma as soon as possible, even if it meant having to take a public speaking class.

Before I knew it, summer break was over and that meant going back to college. Even though I had enjoyed myself during the break, at the back of my mind was the knowledge that I would need to take the public speaking class for the upcoming semester. For the first day of the class, part of me did not know what to expect. My friends recommended that I keep telling myself that everything would turn out okay, even if it didn’t seem that way at the time. Not wanting to be the center of attention, I immediately headed for one of the back rows when I entered the class.

In hindsight, this was perhaps the worst mistake of my entire life. Being the first day of classes, it would have been reasonable to expect the lecturer to ask everyone to introduce themselves, particularly in a public speaking class. As I sat down, I realized my fatal mistake but knew that I could do nothing to change it. After the lecturer spoke for a few minutes about the course content and also some of their background, each student was asked to stand up and give a one minute speech about their background.

Not only would I have to shout due to sitting so far away, but I would end up being on of the last people to speak; this meant waiting for everyone else to go first. I could not really pay attention to what anyone else was saying because I was stressing over my own situation. After what seemed like an eternity, it was my turn to stand up and speak. As I opened my mouth, it seemed like the whole world’s focus was on me. To overcome my fear, I imagined like I was the only person in the room. To my surprise, it worked.

Over the course of the semester, my confidence grew and grew as I became more accustomed to public speaking. A byproduct of this was that I made many new friends from my public speaking class. On the academic side of things, I finished up with a B+, which exceeded my expectations greatly. It was only after taking this public speaking class that I realized that my original fear was unfounded. I was expecting to struggle throughout the course, but due to a helpful lecturer and a solid group of friends, I was able to pass with flying colors.

In fact, my confidence grew so high that I even joined a Toastmasters club. After a short while I even found myself giving tips to new members on how to conduct a public speech. I can now say that I had nothing to