The thought of enrolling for Speech 102 left me at a loss for words... literally. I had purposefully decided to forego the class. "Three presentations!" I gasped to myself, "like, in front of the class?" My adrenaline started to to accelerate into a fight/flight mode. "I know," I thought smugly to myself, heaving a sigh of relief, "I'll just defer my Speech Class!" I smiled to myself, and I remember thinking how easy that decision was to make.

That was three semesters ago, and my ignorance proved to be no excuse. I stared blankly at my audit page and shuddered. There was no way to elude the dreaded Speech Class, as it was one of my prerequisite classes. I felt aghast... I started to panic, mainly because of the stories I'd heard pertaining to the requirements of Speech Class. A sense of impending foreboding engulfed me as an imminent foreshadowing and a sure sign of anticipated failure.

I entered the class and nervously placed my now tensed physique at an available desk. As I glanced around the classroom, everyone else seemed to be at ease and of course glued to their electronic gadgets, oblivious to the intense internal battle that was raging within me. The austere and unsmiling figure that entered the room and introduced herself as Professor Stone did little to calm me, but rather intensified my prior fears and expectations as it related to this particular course. As the professor relayed her expectations for us and delivered an overview of the course, emphasis was placed on the presentations that were mandatory. Adjectives such as informative, persuasive, and demonstrative were used to describe the format in which the speeches would be delivered.

Though numerous promptings, instructions, and warnings from the professor were repeated during each class, the day of our first presentation was not without hitches and flaws. For example, the majority of the demonstrative speeches exceeded the stipulated five minute time frame. Non-enunciation and non-projection proved to be a recurring issue that plagued most speeches. Prior to the class, I had heeded the advice of the professor and recorded and timed myself. Although my speech was given within the time required, I experienced a lull in my presentation for which points was deducted. To counteract this pause, the professor advised that I should keep the audience engaged by being verbal while I demonstrated as opposed to being silent, which would result in a lack of interest on their part.

The informative speech presentation was quite informative, as topics discussed proved relevant and interesting. I chose to speak on Shamanism, which is a type of religion with which the professor was actually quite familiar. The use of index cards was permitted, but only as a point of reference, and were not meant to be read from verbatim. This type of delivery is known as extemporaneous speech, and it is crucial as it tests the level of memorization of your speech and your ability to deliver in a non-rehearsed manner. To reiterate, the professor was quite pleased with my choice of topic for the informative speech and her critique of the speech was positive.

For the persuasive speech presentation, the classroom was virtually empty, as only half the amount of students that had began initially showed up. As the name suggests, with this type of speech, it's imperative for to one display the ability to convince the audience to agree with the views that are being declared by the speaker. It also calls on the audience to take a proactive action in an effort to alleviate a problem that requires immediate and urgent attention by a group or community effort.

Thus, my F.E.A.R of speech class proved to be illusory. The lessons acquired taught me to be vocal and poised, instead of being fearful and speechless. In the future, I will refuse to embrace any subtle innuendos of False Evidence Appearing Real.