Personal Narrative: My First Speech Anxiety

Although giving my first speech gave me speech anxiety, I feel proud that I stayed up in the podium and finished, because after chocking in front of the class all I wanted to do was to sit back down in my seat and hide my face. Before giving my speech I felt confident because I was talking about a topic that I have years of experience as it is a part of my everyday routine, however, when I went up to talk about it my nervous overcame my confidence. During my speech, I started to stutter and even forgot how to pronounce words that I had previously practiced just so I wouldn’t have a problem with during the speech. And even though I had a written script I tried to focus more on eye contact more than anything else that I lost my train of thought

I was told by my mother that as a little girl I was always quiet and that is why I feel that I was naturally born a shy girl, and for my twenty-six-years, I have always struggled with public speaking. In high school, I had to take speech, but even then I struggled with this as much as I do now. Second, I would like to act confident and for that to be shown to the audience, in this case, to my classmates. Also, this could be shown a lot better by talking loud and clear and make good eye contact with my classmates. Lastly, stop comparing myself to my classmates as they are giving their speech. I feel that when I do this my anxiety goes through the roof because I see how great they do, so when it’s my turn instead of presenting my speech how I practiced at home I add more things and that's how my mistakes arise. The strategies that will help me reach my goals would be to practice more especially with people. I could practice at work with my patients, as some of them have offered an ear to listen to my speech beforehand. Instead of writing a script in one paper I am considering using note cards as this will help me keep up with the speech and not lose my place as I am presenting. And listen to motivational music as I am rehearsing and the day of the