Personal Narrative: The Iceroom

871 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Stage fright experience

Standing in “The Icebox”, a room holding P.E. supplies and ten degrees colder than the rest of the school’s gym, I am sweating. The microphone is slipping out of my clammy hands, and I am feeling queasy. Panicking and desperate to find any way to calm myself down, I gulp down an entire water bottle. “And now,” my leadership classmate bellows into his microphone, “please welcome Emily Collins, your junior class of 2016 rally leader!” My stomach drops and I force myself to run from my cool compartment to the hot, muggy gym. I flash a huge smile to the 1,300 students as I run around the gym in a ridiculous Princess Peach costume. I am radiating what looks like confidence, but my peers have no idea that I threw up thirty minutes before the rally. …show more content…

I still felt sick from throwing up earlier, but felt even more of a coward once I realized how great my fear of public speaking really was. Nerves and anxiety took control over me when I had to speak in discussion or presentations. Even being in the environment and the thought of speaking or presenting would emulate the same fear. But these emotions did not compared to the ones I experienced when I stood in front of 1,300 people. My body felt like it could collapse at any second due to the intense level of nerves, overwhelmingness, and nausea. Recognizing that I had a legitimate fear, I decided that if I was selected to be my class’ rally leader, it was time for me to make an effort to conquer the fear and develop public speaking skills. I had a Spanish presentation the following week which I meticulously memorized my lines for. As I studied, I could not stop recalling the horrendous feeling the rally caused me, so I read a few articles with tips how to conquer my public speaking fear. Reading a few articles was obviously not enough to eliminate my fear, but I did not want to admit this to myself. On the day of the presentation, my typical presentation nerves arose. I learned very quickly is that getting over a fear is a long process and cannot be fixed over a few days, nonetheless a few articles with

Show More
Related

  • Emma Goldmans Speech

    1587 Words  | 4 Pages

    Few people are fearless speakers. As students, we generally feel the rumble of butterflies in our stomachs, but the most we have to lose is a good grade.

    Read More

  • Social Phobias Essay

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    In order to treat the fear you must treat it with relaxation while in the presence of the feared situation. The first step in Wolpe’s study was to focus on relaxing your body. He recommended a process that involves tensing and relaxing various groups of muscles until a deep state of relaxation is achieved (Wolpe,264). The second stage was to develop a list of anxiety-producing situations that are associated with the phobia. The list would descend with from the least uncomfortable situation to the most anxiety producing event you can imagine. The number of events can vary from 5 to 20 or more. The final step is to desensitize, which is the actual “unlearning” of the phobia. Wolpe told his patients that no actual contact with the fear is necessary, and that the same effectiveness can be accomplished through descriptions and visualizations(Wolpe,265). Wolpe’s participants are told to put themselves in a state of relaxation which they are taught. Then, the therapist begins reading the first situation on the hierarchy they have made up. If the patient stays relaxed through the first situation the therapist continues to the next until the state of relaxation is broken. If they feel a slight moment of anxiety they are to raise their index finger until the state of relaxation is restored. The average number

    Read More

  • First Day Of School In Americ A Short Story

    786 Words  | 2 Pages

    I walked in and my stomach made a flip-flop like riding “The Scream” at Six Flags. Everyone was staring at me! With their curios eyes and anxious to know who I was. I froze like ice and felt the heat rise through my face. My parents talked to my teacher, Ms.Piansky. Then my mom whispered “It’s ti...

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: Speech Self Critique

    355 Words  | 1 Pages

    During my demonstration speech, I was affected by my speech anxiety. Some of the viewable symptoms were the shaking of my hands and also the stuttering of speech. I was able to control myself and relax after I started getting into my information. I did use some of the suggested relaxation techniques to relieve my anxiety. Before I got up to speak I thought confident of myself to help give me courage and confidence.

    Read More

  • Final Reflection In Communication

    898 Words  | 2 Pages

    I believe that, if I feel nervous in the future, I will not be afraid of this emotion like what I did before. This course provided me knowledge on how to make me relax. Little by little, I have gained the confidence of combating the fear of public speaking in this course. All these precious experience will continue benefiting me in the future. Thus, I am proud to say that I have fullfilled the course objectives and enhanced my public speaking

    Read More

  • Stephen Lucas's The Fear Of Public Speaking

    1156 Words  | 3 Pages

    How has public speaking become so feared? “In a study [of 9,000 people] that concentrated on fears in a social situation, their top ranking fears were public speaking, speaking up in class, meeting new people, talking to people of authority, important exams or interviews, going to parties and talking to strangers”(Lucas, 2012, pg. 9). This question has always perplexed me, because I too suffer from a fear of speaking in public. But after reading chapter one of The Art of Public Speaking, I understand now that it is a blend of different subjects that make public speaking seem so unappealing. Stephen Lucas opens this chapter on the power of public speaking, by saying “Throughout history people have used public speaking as a vital means of

    Read More

  • Reflective Essay On Communication Skills

    1239 Words  | 3 Pages

    For the aforementioned reasons, there is no doubt that fears and shy had been controlled myself throughout the years. According to The People’s Almanac presents The Book of Lists by David Wallechinsky, Irving and Amy Wallace, one of the topic was titled “The 14 Worst Human Fears”, and the fear of speaking in public is the first fear of all fears (Richard I. Garber, 2009). This make me realized that it is perfectly normal to feel anxiety and fears to speak. Everyone, even an experienced speakers has some anxiety when speaking in front of a group of people. As for my experience and situation, I should have just fight the fears in me to throw my voice out asking questions in class otherwise I would might left behind a bit and need to struggle up for the subjects more than everyone does. Asking questions does not make you any stupid, it’s the source of

    Read More

  • Snow Day-Personal Narrative

    989 Words  | 2 Pages

    It all started off that Mia and her brother teddy had a snow day. Their mom made them a nice breakfast. This was the first time in a while that they all eat a meal together as a family. After they eat, they decided to go on drive. As they were driving, they were talking about where Mia will go to college.

    Read More

  • My Public Speaking Speech

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    My public speaking class has already enhanced my knowledge and my ability to give speeches greatly. I know that with time and experience in public speaking, I will become a more skilled and professional public speaker. I will be sharing my first thoughts about my public speaking class, my strengths and weaknesses as a speaker, the speech I am most proud of so far, the speech that was the most difficult so far, and areas I know I need to improve on in order to be a skilled public speaker. Although I have had previous engagements with public speaking in high and middle school, none can be compared to the nervousness I felt about speaking in college level classes.

    Read More

  • Narrative Essay On Anxiety

    764 Words  | 2 Pages

    That was the day of our first speech. Public speaking has been know from anxiety producing abilities, and on that day, it hit me like a tsunami . As I began, I soon found myself frozen. I even tried to end it early to try to save myself some humility, completely forgetting that I was required to stay up here for at least 1:30 seconds. As I tried to escape Ms. Watkins lassoed me back like I was a newborn Calf . On that, my anxiety got the best of

    Read More

  • Fear of public speaking

    1379 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hall-Flavin, Daniel K. "Fear of Public Speaking: How Can I Overcome It?" Mayo Clinic. N.p., 24 Mar. 2011. Web. 19 Jan. 2014. .

    Read More

  • Communication 101 Reflective Essay

    801 Words  | 2 Pages

    Before taking the Communication 101 course I never really felt confident in my public speaking skills. When I was younger I was a very shy kid, I never really spoke my opinion in classes and never wanted to raise my hand to answer a question. As a result, I was that kid who was deadly afraid to get called on so he would try to hide in the back of the class and just blend in. As I grew older, I started to grow out of the being afraid habit, and realized I’m just going to have to speak publicly. So I tried my best to set my nerves aside, and started to raise my hand in class or even volunteer to present first.

    Read More

  • Social Skills Deficit Research Paper

    919 Words  | 2 Pages

    I did have great communication skills but whenever I had to communicate in front of a group of people for some reasons I fail miserably. My public speaking fears had become worst when I got to college. I was required to take a public speaking class which I couldn’t escape in since it was one of the required courses for my degree. My first day on that class is so far the most terrible day of my life. I was asked to introduce myself to the class using only one word to describe me, the moment that my name was called it felt like I was walking into an unfamiliar galaxy. I am standing in front of a classroom full of strangers doing nothing but looking around and

    Read More

  • My Fear Of Public Speaking Analysis

    498 Words  | 1 Pages

    As I advanced though grade school, public speaking became more and more prevalent and I knew that I needed to do something to ease my fear.

    Read More

  • Public Speaker Essay

    1352 Words  | 3 Pages

    Learning how to overcome fear through building self esteem and confidence will always have the most important impact to me as a communicator. Public speaking anxiety results into boring and poor speech which is made in hurry. Through my communication lessons I have known how to prepare and practice, get organized, know the details of my topic and learn how to visualize on my success as a communicator in order to beat the fear of public speaking. This in no doubt will have a great impact to me as a motivational

    Read More

More about Personal Narrative: The Iceroom

Open Document