Overcoming Fear

To some, standing before a group of their peers for a few minutes is the easiest task they will ever do in school. For people like me, it is much more than that. Anxiety disorders have plagued my family for generations and as far back as the beginning of psychology. Both my mother and her mother suffer from some form of anxiety, and it was not lost on me. Social anxiety seems to be a continuous, uphill battle and hindrance that affects everything from the people I don’t communicate with, to what I say and even which side of the street I walk on. But, it has not won every battle. In primary school, most classes are led by instruction of one teacher and include twenty or thirty children of the same or similar ages. Presentations and lessons are taught with minimal student participation in the actual teaching. In junior high, this changes quite a bit. Students participate by asking questions and being evaluated through in-class work, but they also are given the opportunity to work on their own presentations. These can be done in groups or alone. The first time this ever happened to me was in my sixth grade English class. Mrs. Settles was our teacher who introduced herself to be very fond of posters, artwork, and information gathered by her students and would use them frequently as learning tools for the class. Within two weeks of that first day, we were assigned to give a five minute book report in front of the class. You can imagine my mind swirling at the thought of placing myself on a pedestal for all to see. My whole body shook at the idea of drawing attention to myself for any reason, so why should a presentation differ from every other normal social situation? We were given a whole week to prepare a poster board for any chapter book we had ever read, which was the only stress-free part of the assignment. After purchasing the appropriate sized canvas for my work, I spent three days after school attempting to transfer my knowledge of a small, fictional book