Informative Speech: Nervousness And Stereotypes

Nervousness was the one word that described my informative speech. I practiced and practiced but I felt as though I wasn’t prepared when standing in front of the class. I stumbled on my words, did not have good transitions, and forgot one slide that I was supposed to explain. I had little pauses where I forgot what I was going to say, and the word umm crept back into my speech. I thought my first speech went better than my second one. Usually it should be the other way around, but I guess it works differently for every person. I knew a lot about my topic but since it was history, I was nervous that I would bore the class with facts and pictures. I didn’t feel as jittery with my feet this time, but I looked at my notecards a lot more than I
usually would. One time I was speaking and I got a frog in my throat and couldn’t finish my sentence. Speaking in front of people is what I want to get better at and learn from, but this was not one I would want to learn from. To me it felt sloppy and choppy. A couple parts of my speech I felt confident in. These included the introduction and the conclusion. I had little areas where I could just talk about a certain part of my topic and not have to worry about looking down at my notecards to save me. I try to give my best eye contact to everyone but it really is very intimidating. Speeches are stressful to me even when they shouldn’t be. I even got nervous when we had to talk about our fortune cookie and we were only up there for 30 seconds! Hopefully with time I will advance in my speaking skills and communication skills, but right now it seems very hard for me to do. Being the center of attention is not my thing.
I hate when people stare at me and ask about me all the time. Yes, I would love to talk and share with you about my life but let me return the questions back so I can hear about your life as well. It is not like I am an introvert, but I want to get to know other people as well. Also, I was in the musical on stage but I wasn’t alone, which is why I liked being on stage. I love singing and performing when in a huge group, but being independent on my own right now being a teenager scares me when up in front of all of my peers. Everyone has different gifts and blessings. Mine is helping people and getting to know others. I want to be an elementary teacher and I know this is great practice for my future plans, but being my age it just stresses me out a bunch. I know this will help me in the future, but in the meantime it is still a burden I have when giving a speech. Hopefully one day I will be able to feel confident when giving a speech and enjoy explaining to people a certain topic or subject I have. Learning and growing is what I want to do, but it might take some time to really start loving giving speeches. Although speeches of any sort stress me out, I still enjoy giving them deep down within the pits of my stomach. It’s that relieved feeling you get when you feel as though you have accomplished something big even if that was only a small speech in our junior English class. Whether I hate speeches or love giving them, they will be with me the rest of my
life.