It happened in a presentation at New Haven free public library. We 15 people were invited to deliver a series of public speech about China's culture from different aspects such as history，traditions，festivals，families and the latest development. I joined in the first group. The task was assigned a week ago and I should have got enough time to deal with it properly，but unfortunately I didn't，which might be the main reason for my disapointing experience.
Before I was told to join in the first group chiefly talking about family planning policy and the aging society in China，I had formed a plan concerning the relationship between people and animals in families both in the past and at present，a topic I am more intested in，so I was totally at a loss about what to do when I was informed of the topic. Hearing the ideas of my group partners，I thought over and over about what I could possibly continue. Finally，I decided to show some pictures as a continuation and conclusion of what Jason would say about the aging society. If I had started my preparation earlier，I could have done it better. However，it had been arranged that there would be a dinner party on Tuesday，two days before the speech. Worse still，I am not a person who can be devoted to different tasks at the same time.Therefore，when I was hogtied by different trifles before the dinner party，I just couldn't spare enough effort to focus on my pre-work of the speech. So I didn't do much before the dinner party was over.
It was after the class on Monday afternoon that I actually started my work. When I got it started，I was startled to find there were so many things to do including searching for different pictures and organizing a variety of scripts for them，so I could only show a rough draft at Tuesday's rehearsal. If I had done more on Tuesday evening，I could have escaped the disaster. But troubles never come singly. There was a terrible coincidence that night：the internet was unvailable！I couldn't surf on line to find more pictures，so I had to go to bed early. Fortunately，it turned out the next morning that the router was not broken. I decided to continue my job in the afternoon right after the class. I stayed up very late on Wednesday night searching for pictures，editing the words and making revisions. On Thursday morning，being afraid that there might be a need for another revision，I woke up very early and checked all the pictures and scripts again. After finishing all the work，I took a deep breath，but anxiety kept haunting in my mind frequently. In the afternoon，my roomate Cherry helped me do the work of picture editting on PPT as I was not good at it；Jennifer and Lyli came along to my apartment，and I rehearsed again with the revised contents based. The time was approaching when I made the final revision based on their advice. I tried my best to remember the words，but I found myself frequently distracted by the feeling of tiredness，anxiety and pressure. You could imagine how terrible I did when it was my turn. I pretended to be calm at first，but when it came to something that I didn't get quite familiar with，I couldn't resist the stressful and dizzy feelings. My mouth was so parched and my throat so scorched that I felt myself unable to say a word at times！It was a horrible and suffering feeling I have never had before，but it occurred exactly at the moment when I was making the speech. After I finished，I even felt I was in a fever，a rather abnormal phenomenon I myself have not even thought to occur in my life. I almost ruined our teamwork even though the other four did quite well.
Afterwards，I thought a lot about it. My unsual feeling of tension might be caused by the immature preparation and a lack of confidence. I could have avoided the occurrence of such a bad feeling if I had been more ready for the speech. As is known to us，there won't be any satisfactory outcome without sufficient preparation. My disastrous experience in the presentation is absolutely a proof for this saying.
I feel you should expunge this bad memory and guilt by doing a little bit of performance in the final presentation...even if it is simply the introduction of your colleagues. I really don't want you to remember the experience so negatively...can something be done to create another memory?
ReplyDeleteI'm fine now, for the elapse of time can always help. Thank you, Carrie.
Deletetake it easy. when we look back, that should be something nice.
ReplyDeleteMy goodness! I didn't see any of that nervousness in your presentation!! I thought you did a wonderful job. Your information was informative and riveting! Once you got into the swing of it, you spoke eloquently and articulately! I never would have known that you were anxious!
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