Getting up in front of a crowd of people has always been a weird task for me. Sometimes, it’s a piece of cake. Other times, I have the hardest time trying to say the words I want to say. I’ll talk about my experiences for talking in front of people, and presenting the information I have to say.
Going throughout high school, I loved and hated presentations. I loved presentations because I could get to research a topic and talk about it for hours and hours. The only thing is, I wouldn’t want to talk about it for hours and hours. I wanted to be done as quickly as possible to get back to my seat. It’s not that I was afraid of messing up what I was saying, I just hated having the attention of my classmates all on me.
Solo presentations used to be a nightmare for me. If the realization crossed my mind that my entire class was looking at me, I’d freeze up and forget about what I was saying. This would cause me to fumble my words, stand there awkwardly for a quick second, maybe slip out a few “umms…” while trying to get back on track. I hated when this happened because I knew what I was talking about, and I most of the time had the information right in front of me or memorized.
As I kept practicing though, I got better being alone in front of my class. What helped me is completely immersing myself into what I’m presenting so I forget that my classmates have their attention on me. Another thing that has helped when I’m solo in front of the class is remembering to breathe. I forget to do this a lot because I go on long tangents about a topic. To avoid this, I add breath marks into my notecards so I can breathe without passing out in front of my classmates. That would be SUPER embarrasing.
Group projects were a lot easier on my anxiety about being in front of people. It would give me more chances to think about what to say next, and to catch my breath. Now that I’ve practiced talking solo, though, I’d rather not do group presentations. It gets so awkward standing there waiting for your group to talk. I tend to be a fidgety person, so while I wait for my group to finish up their talking I’ll tend to twiddle my fingers or rock back and forth.
I’m not really sure why I’ve had all these problems with getting up in front of a crowd because I’m actually used to it. I was in theatre for junior and senior year of high school, so putting on a show in front of my crowd is my thing. I think it’s just the anxiety of putting out the correct information to my classmates that gets scary, while in theatre you’re just there to entertain and put on a great show for your audience.
Practice has definitely helped me with presenting in front of other people. If this is something that you struggle with, practice will help you! Some tips I can recommend is doing a presentation for something fun to start with, like presenting about your favorite foods and some reasons as to why. Also, start small and practice with larger groups. Presenting by yourself in front of four or five people is a great place to start, then gradually build up your audience little by little to perfect your presenting skills.
And don’t worry if you mess up on a presentation! I promise it won’t be the end of the world. A good tip is if you mess up, just go with it and move on!
TC