Public Speaking and Me

So today, I found that my stage fright has returned.

What do I mean by "stage fright"? That feeling when someone says Sebastian you're presenting! and you're like: 

And then you realize that you have an audience of 80 people. And you realize that you will NOT be prepared, will have NO idea what you're talking about.

Then your hands go numb, your knees are moments away from buckling, your stomach is churning from all the butterflies that's bursting from its larvae.

So I told myself, "Sebastian, it's just 3 slides on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Just whatever you do, don't say anything embarrassing."

And so I did. 

Right before the start I said,

"So I'm going to be talking about OCD... pretty much the story of my life."

And again...

Because they howled with laughter.

So I decided to save it by saying, "Sorry, when I get nervous I..."

And they howled in laughter again because I reiterated the fact that I had OCD.

The rest of it was just knee-shaking and trails of laughter for the slow ones.

Moral of the story: The number of public speaking competitions you've won as a kid does not directly correlate with your confidence in public speaking. It just correlates with the frequency your knees are shaking (7Hz) T.T

Now is the time to nod sympathetically.