Personal Narrative: A Day At A Medical School
Jonathan Matthews bowed and returned to his seat. As the applause died down I counted how many people before me had to go up in front of the class. Our less-than-ordinary Health teacher has decided that we should go in alphabetical order by first name. That means that next up is Kim Hunter, then Kristy Smith, Liam Johnson and finally me, Lisa Williams. Everyone around me was shuffling papers and looking over spreads of information on large rectangles of thick card. Those who left everything to the last minute were all turning bright red as they tried to stuff all the new information into their brains. I looked back at my papers and reread my presentation speech, all two minutes and thirty-nine seconds of digestive systems, sugars and childhood
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obesity. With each name being called up, my stomach sunk further and further into my body and my chest felt stiff.
‘I need to get a hold of myself.’ I thought. After thirteen years of singing, dancing and acting in front of crowds of hundreds of people, I was still afraid of getting up in front of a class of not even twenty people to read off of a piece of paper for a couple of minutes.
Our teacher called out Liam’s name and he made his way to the front of the class.
Even at times when you’d expect everyone to be freaking out, Liam was the type of person who would keep calm and cool, as if he were walking up to receive an award as opposed to presenting the product of weeks and weeks of hard work to his peers. He turned to face the class and looked around at everyone. That’s when I noticed something: a single bead of sweat fall down over his temple and past the front of his ear. Seeing this gave me the chills. Can someone so self-assured really get nervous like everyone else? I immediately began to feel a lot better about myself. When Liam had finished his presentation, I straightened my papers and folded my board.
“Lisa Williams.” I stood up, gathered everything I needed and headed up to the front. I was about halfway there when I tripped over someone’s bag and landed face-first on the ground. It’s almost as if I was doomed to embarrass myself. I bade farewell to my short streak of sudden confidence and collected my things off of the ground. The class was dead silent as I set everything up. When I turned around I could see everyone’s eyes on me, even the frightened procrastinators.
“I guess that’s one way to get everyone’s attention,” I laughed
nervously.
obesity. With each name being called up, my stomach sunk further and further into my body and my chest felt stiff.
‘I need to get a hold of myself.’ I thought. After thirteen years of singing, dancing and acting in front of crowds of hundreds of people, I was still afraid of getting up in front of a class of not even twenty people to read off of a piece of paper for a couple of minutes.
Our teacher called out Liam’s name and he made his way to the front of the class.
Even at times when you’d expect everyone to be freaking out, Liam was the type of person who would keep calm and cool, as if he were walking up to receive an award as opposed to presenting the product of weeks and weeks of hard work to his peers. He turned to face the class and looked around at everyone. That’s when I noticed something: a single bead of sweat fall down over his temple and past the front of his ear. Seeing this gave me the chills. Can someone so self-assured really get nervous like everyone else? I immediately began to feel a lot better about myself. When Liam had finished his presentation, I straightened my papers and folded my board.
“Lisa Williams.” I stood up, gathered everything I needed and headed up to the front. I was about halfway there when I tripped over someone’s bag and landed face-first on the ground. It’s almost as if I was doomed to embarrass myself. I bade farewell to my short streak of sudden confidence and collected my things off of the ground. The class was dead silent as I set everything up. When I turned around I could see everyone’s eyes on me, even the frightened procrastinators.
“I guess that’s one way to get everyone’s attention,” I laughed
nervously.