oh I feel for you, I really do. The leading up to doing a speech is hell. I just did a speech last week, the first one for years. It went badly, I did get very nervous and I shook, but you know, I'm still alive now and no one really cares. We are all so caught up in our personal lives that we don't really spend a great deal of time thinking about what other people do.
Thinking back to high school I thought I was the only one that really, really feared it. But remembering speeches there were about 3 other people in my class that got nervous up there, and one girl faked a throat infection or something to get out of it. We are not alone, there's probably plenty of other students in your school that have the same problem. Which leads me to wonder why this problem isn't tackled in our schools.
I think public speaking is such a problem for so many people and I don't know why they don't tackle this from a very young age in school and have students regularly do this so that they are not scared of it. Remember when we all used to do show & tell and speak when we were young? What happens? All of a sudden you stop doing it, then once a year you've gotta do a speech again and you're just not used to it anymore. It's crazyness.
After my terrible, terrible speech, I feel now that I want to get rid of this problem even more. How can I ever get married for example, if I can't get up in front of people? And as nervous as I got & showed it that day, my life is still the same and all my friends are still friends with me! My family is still here for me like they have always been, and my work colleagues act the same. It's somewhat of a revelation. I'm feeling at the moment that I want to join a speaking club, and just do speech after speech, nervous as hell, until I get used to it. I'll just explain to them why I'm doing it. I'm sure they'll think I'm brave rather than stupid.
It sounds good in theory, wonder if I'll do it!?
Hope my rambling has been of some help or comfort..
http://anxietyjourney.blogspot.com
