Reflective Essay: Speaking In The AP Class

I have never been an extremely confident person. Although I love to express my ideas with others, I face anxiety when confronted with the prospect of public speaking or even speaking in class. I tend to focus more on my schoolwork and less on making sure I am participating in every way possible. However, my junior year was a major turning point. Just taking one different and challenging class opened my eyes and showed me that I am capable of more than I thought possible. My whole life, public speaking has daunted me. When I am forced to present in front of a class, I do not feel nervous until I am at the podium facing thirty other students. Even though I am confident in what I am saying, my body and words prefer to shake. I have tried to improve my speaking abilities but have not had much success. It wasn’t until I decided to really challenge myself that I found
There was no way I would be able to take that class. Yes, I did think I had improved in my speaking, and yes, I knew I was better than most in my class. But did that mean I was ready for the intense workload I had heard about? I saw the students in the AP class; they all spoke like native speakers. How could I work up to that level when I still felt like I was at the bottom? I thought I knew my skills pretty well—so what did my teacher see in me that I didn’t? In the end, after intense deliberation, I decided to challenge myself—albeit reluctantly—and take AP Spanish. There were hundreds of moments when I doubted my decision: when I wrote it on my schedule form and handed it to my teacher to sign; when I was handed the summer work packet; when I stepped in class the first day and didn’t hear a single syllable of English; when I was assigned a two-minute presentation the very next day. The list could go on and on; I doubted myself every day in that class and always wondered whether I had made the right