Wow! That Was Hard

Where do I begin?

Is it the condensing the naturally dense paper into a 10 minute presentation?

Is it the nerves associated with doing a presentation of this nature?

Is it my natural aversion to public speaking given my stutter?

Is it recently recovering from illness?

Well .... it's everything, and that's ok.

I lay out the challenges of doing my journal club presentation but decide to forget the things I have learnt from it. I learnt deeply about the paper I was reporting on, because to know what is important enough to leave out, you must know everything there is to know. I got the opportunity to learn about the topics in the paper, as well as the opportunity to bring the knowledge I have gained to my fellow classmates and instructors.

So, that was ok, I guess. But in reality, it was really exhausting and a bit of a harrowing experience. Nevertheless, I'm glad to have done it and faced one of my fears. Although I don't think I did particularly well, it was a huge feeling of relief to be done with it.

I could go on and on about the mechanics of public speaking, and how with navigating the already fast pace at which I speak, which is exacerbated when I'm nervous, the shaky voice, and the stuttering, there was almost nothing positive that I could see coming from that experience, during and immediately after.

However, I was really glad for the chance to improve on it. And the only way to improve is to see a marker for where you are coming from.

This module was a unique challenge but at the end of the day, it was alright.


- Clinton

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