Dear everyone's stupid, yet terrifying, fear,
"His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy- there's vomit on his sweater already, moms' spaghetti". Eminem clearly was rapping about the fear of public speaking. Hopefully, there won't actually be throw up on your sweater, that'd just be gross. However, I can bet you are wishing you could be at home, eating your mom's spaghetti instead of standing up in front of a room full of people you barely know, talking about something you personally don't really care about. Well, welcome to college.
I honestly thought that college would mean less presentations. I was obviously wrong (what else is new). Everyone low-key or high-key has a fear of public speaking. The moment your professor says, "Yes, we will be presenting this project", your poor emotionally damaged college soul is already thinking of the best ways to try to not cry like the inner 7 year old that you truly are.
Every time I have to present anything, the anticipation of actually getting up in front of everyone is 10x worse than the actual presentation. It almost feels like you are standing on the edge of a diving board, and then the professor says your name to present, and splash. You just did the worst dive ever, basically a belly flop. As I'm writing this I am honestly curious as to if Olympic divers feel this way. Odds are they don't. Maybe Olympians are also scared of public speaking. Will we ever know? Probably not. Will I pretend they are terrified of it to bring up my self-esteem? Of course.
Shout out to the people that don't even try to cover up the fact that they are a mess in front of a crowd. I try my hardest to seem like I am a somewhat emotionally-stable girl while I present. I mean, I'm basically gripping the podium to keep myself from shaking, but aren't we all? I really don't understand the purpose of public speaking. We all know how to talk, why should we have to discuss topics to a room of people who are basically just sleeping with their eyes open- literally staring at you while you stutter your way through the presentation.
As a public relations major, I am more than aware that I'll be doing public speaking a lot more than my heart desires. Pretty positive I even have to take a public speaking class somewhere down the line. I will never really understand the purpose, but hey- that's life. Just know that everyone is secretly shitting themselves while presenting. You aren't alone, trust me.
Sincerely,
the girl shaking behind the podium