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Last night I did a 45 minute presentation with a partner in my kinesiology class. We lectured on chapter 8 of out text book (conveniently written by our professor). Public speaking has always been one of my weaknesses. I dreaded this March 24 at the thought of myself standing in front of my fellow class mates "teaching" them information I knew only just as well (and possible even less) than some of them. I imagined myself stuttering, slipping on my words, with sweat marks growing under neath my arm pits. At the end they would bombared me with questions and my mind would go blank as i rambled some random answer met with smug faces of disapointment. But as a somewhat nuerotic individual, this was me preparing for the worst possible scenerio (not including peeing or letting one rip out of nervousness in front of everyone, that's going a bit far, although I did think of it in "what if" terms at one point. At 5:30pm we took our stand infront of the class. Our powerpoint project was tweaked and ready to go. We had three well thought out quiz questions at the beggining. Things were going well. My partner was first, introducing the topic and delving into some background information. She was doing excellent. At last the moment of truth arrived. I stood up and to my own surprise my voice rang out loud, clear, and free of stutters. My mind was flowing, the words were stringing together like some magical chain (yes, bad simile, i know). I was exceeding even my practice performance (strength in numbers?). By the end of the presentation I was relieved that it was over. I had a good feeling that I knew what I had done right and what I would be criticized on. We waited to receive our feedback forms. Amazing. I felt so satisfied with myself, like I had conquered a fear, and destroyed Goliath. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, like twenty pats on my back. The thing that most stuck in my mind was the comments regarding me and my partner's team work. We did an excellent job keeping the flow of the presentation - one of us manned the power point while the other spoke. I also received compliments on my ability to maintain eye contact with the class while reading my notes clearly and appearing to be very knowledgeable on the topic. It may seem as though I like to toot my own horn, but hey, once in awhile you have to give yourself credit for a job well done, especially when it was extremely challenging. It important to remember positive feedback as well as constructive criticism. To sum up, basically I feel like I've added an accomplishment to my life's resume and now have an experience under my belt to take with me and use in similar future situations. One last thing I need to mention is that I felt as though my partner and I had been able to deliever a formal presentation, choked full of important information while still maintaining a lighthearted peer relationship with our classmates.