My Biggest Failure By Andrew Gilfillan
My Biggest Failure
By Andrew Gilfillan
Public speaking has never been my forte in school; the days preceding any sort of presentation were filled with many meetings between my forehead and a desk -- the moments before a presentation were filled with crippling stage fright.The worst time I ever messed up a presentation, I didn't exactly learn from my mistake the first time over.
In the sixth grade, as part of a final project for our reading unit on the book Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, I chose (from a variety of options) to write an oratorical speech on any subject I wanted and present it to the class. However, for some reason my twelve-year-old brain did not fully comprehend the sentence, skipping over the terms "speech" and "present to the class" as I assumed this was just an essay with more figurative language than a typical paper. I learned of the presentation aspect when my teacher called my name up to speak; luckily after learning of my ignorance he let another student go first in hopes of giving me at least a few minutes to prepare. This blindsided me -- I was done in by my own inattention to detail …show more content…
I didn't even stand up before I choked.
I buried my face into my arms in hopes the whole thing would end and my anxiety would go away and I would never have to deal with this sort of thing again. My teacher tried coaxing me out of my shell but to no avail. I was on the verge of a tear-filled panic attack. After a couple of minutes, my teacher finally showed me mercy and read my essay for me, at the expense of a few points deducted from my final grade.
The following semester, I was working on another large project, and as a final part of the grade I had to present my work to the class. I did my best to approach it with a sense of optimism. After all, here was my chance! I could go up and present myself, maybe make a joke, get a couple of laughs (or at least pity giggles from the teacher). I walked up in front of the class, and began my
By Andrew Gilfillan
Public speaking has never been my forte in school; the days preceding any sort of presentation were filled with many meetings between my forehead and a desk -- the moments before a presentation were filled with crippling stage fright.The worst time I ever messed up a presentation, I didn't exactly learn from my mistake the first time over.
In the sixth grade, as part of a final project for our reading unit on the book Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, I chose (from a variety of options) to write an oratorical speech on any subject I wanted and present it to the class. However, for some reason my twelve-year-old brain did not fully comprehend the sentence, skipping over the terms "speech" and "present to the class" as I assumed this was just an essay with more figurative language than a typical paper. I learned of the presentation aspect when my teacher called my name up to speak; luckily after learning of my ignorance he let another student go first in hopes of giving me at least a few minutes to prepare. This blindsided me -- I was done in by my own inattention to detail …show more content…
I didn't even stand up before I choked.
I buried my face into my arms in hopes the whole thing would end and my anxiety would go away and I would never have to deal with this sort of thing again. My teacher tried coaxing me out of my shell but to no avail. I was on the verge of a tear-filled panic attack. After a couple of minutes, my teacher finally showed me mercy and read my essay for me, at the expense of a few points deducted from my final grade.
The following semester, I was working on another large project, and as a final part of the grade I had to present my work to the class. I did my best to approach it with a sense of optimism. After all, here was my chance! I could go up and present myself, maybe make a joke, get a couple of laughs (or at least pity giggles from the teacher). I walked up in front of the class, and began my