Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to present an investigation about the tourist perception towards Puerto Rico in a forum held in one of the amphitheater of the general studies building, DMN. My group was composed of two other members, Sabrina and Barbara which were the ones who made this job came together and I thank them both for their effort and commitment. The presentations started at 1:00PM so I arrived at 12:55 and I saw Sabrina and Barbara on stage already and I freaked out. I though that the hour was changed and I was not aware of it and that I would get zero points and that I would fail the class. It took me a couple of minutes to realize that they were in charge of the previous presentation and that was the reason they were on stage so early.
So finally the forum began and I was sitting nervously waiting for my groups turn. When it was finally our turn to present my heart started pumping really fast, my hands got sweaty and I was trembling. I tried all the relaxation techniques I could do with out making it to obvious that I was doing them. Breathing deeply and controlled, counting backwards from a 100, making power poses but non did work at their full potential. When it was my turn to talk I was struggling with the microphone because you had to put it certain way so you could be heard properly. My first part I had to read from the power point presentation because it was a long cited work. The first part was over I had read the decently and broke the ice with no big problem. For the second part I had planned to read quickly the bullets and talk about that topic. This was what I had prepared for and I was doing ok but suddenly some lady in the back literally yield and laugh really hard, so much that everybody could hear her and all of that while i was talking. As she interrupted me my whole face changed I went from being very nervous to being so angry I wanted to insult the lady. Apparently everybody in the room notice my anger by the way my face changed when I heard the comment. After this I lost focus and I started to make very stupid errors in my pronunciation of words and lost my rithym. After finishing the presentation we ran out of time for the Q & A section which i would have loved to address the lady that interrupted my presentation.
Overall this was a very professional experience I like to dress up for this occasions because is the only excuse I have to wear my good clothes, even though I am always in shorts and tank tops I do like to dress properly. Speaking in front of an audience is something that is very challenging to me but that I want to master, so this was a good starting point and I know I have along way ahead to become a great confectionist.
This post made me laugh so hard! It brought back so many funny memories of that day! I remember being on stage and seeing you enter the room and looking at me with a bewildered face. However, it's great to actually be able to read you point of view from that day. You also reminded me of the profesor that interrupted you during the conference. I found that so incredibly rude. Being a profesor should give her experience on knowing how students are and how nervous they can get, therefore, it was also inconsiderate. Nevertheless, now when I think about that memory it makes me laugh.
ReplyDeleteYour description of the event is refreshing! As I read your post, I almost felt as if I was reliving that day. For a moment I could picture the stage, I could remember the faces in the crowd, I could remember how it felt to wear fancy business clothes, and I was reminded of how cold the amphitheater was. What a walk down memory lane!
ReplyDeleteI also mentioned that lady (the professor) in my blog post about the conference... The experience was great, but her comments were definitely and unnecessary distraction